Monday Musing
[ Amar Sangno ]
They say that school is a temple of learning and the hostel is a second home, where children are nurtured to become better individuals in society. Parents have faith in the school authorities and hostel wardens, entrusting them with the task of caring for and nurturing their wards. Sometimes, that faith turns fatal, and hopes become a nightmare that no parent is prepared for.
Any parent would shudder to imagine that a hostel could turn into a graveyard, like the fatal fire accident at the privately-run bamboo hut hostel that housed students of Don Bosco School, Palin, in February 2010, where 10 children were charred to death, and like what happened at St Alphonsa Public School, Naharlagun, where three innocent students lost their lives on 14 December, 2024, when the water tank collapsed over them.
It’s beyond one’s imagination that their wards would be subjected to sexual assault, like it happened with eight minor children at the girls’ hostel of Mount Carmel Mission School, Roing, in July 2025, leading to a horrific mob vigilantism, during which the suspect, a migrant labourer from Assam, was lynched by an angry mob on 11 July in broad daylight, which shook the state’s core.
Ironically, Mount Carmel Mission School in Roing, allegedly operated by the Dibang Lohit Baptist Christian Association through the Mizoram Missionaries since 2015, had been functioning without proper registration, apparently unnoticed by the deputy director of school education (DDSE) of Lower Dibang Valley district.
These unabated incidents of violence, such as suspected murder, suicide, rape, molestation, and corporal punishment, have been recurring over the years in private schools, putting children’s lives and rights at stake. It is connected to the mushrooming of private schools which are operated without fulfilling the infrastructural safety standards.
“The Roing incident is purely a case of gross negligence on the part of the school authorities and the DDSE concerned,” said Arunachal Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (APSCPCR) Chairperson Ratan Anya.
“The incident could have been prevented if the school authorities and the DDSE had acted timely and ensured that the school met all safety measures and standards to operate,” she added.
“How come a private school running without registration since 2015 go unnoticed by the DDSE? All DDSEs, right from 2015 till date, should be held responsible and accountable,” the APSCPCR chairperson demanded.
Ideally, private schools should play a pivotal role in driving quality educational growth in the state. Many private schools and government-aided institutions in Arunachal are indeed excelling at par with the national standards, consistently producing outstanding students every academic year. As a result, parents often prefer private schools, willing to invest in their children’s future, despite the substantial fees, to ensure that they receive the best possible education.
It is learnt that there 11 unrecognized private schools currently operating in Lower Dibang Valley district and 35 unregistered private schools operating in the Itanagar Capital Region. There are more than 560 private schools operating in the state. Scores of them don’t meet basic infrastructural and manpower standards to run the schools as per the guidelines issued by the Education Department, yet they are brazenly operating.
The bigger question is, how did they manage to pull the wool over the eyes of the authorities to operate the schools without fulfilling the basic criteria?
One of the widely held and persistent accusations within the Directorate of Education is that the officials serving in the academics branch have been facilitating the recognition of dubious private schools in exchange of bribes.
It is alleged that these individuals have built a system where even schools that meet all regulatory standards are forced to pay under the table just to get their files moved – while substandard and unsafe institutions are granted recognition with ease, simply because they pay the right price.
These schools which got recognition illegitimately, protected and enabled by corrupt insiders, become breeding grounds for misconduct, abuse, and negligence. As a result, schools where serious crimes – including sexual assaults and fatal accidents – have occurred continue to operate freely, without meaningful intervention or reform.
This not only exposes the glaring failure of the regulatory system but also reflects a chilling indifference to the lives and safety of children.
Since the Don Bosco School, Palin incident in February 2010, none of the schools have been held accountable for putting children’s lives and rights at stake. Other than legal action against individual accused, no school has been shut down by the authorities for gross negligence.
Let the Roing incident be an eye-opener and spark a revisit to the private schools’ recognition criteria to ensure that child rights are protected and no innocent life is lost at school.
