This year we celebrate a major milestone for the people of the Diocese of Miao. It has been 25 years since the first Catholic school was started in Arunachal Pradesh. The first Catholic school and hostel in Arunachal Pradesh were opened on 3rd July 1992 in Borduria village in Tirap District. The land for it was offered by Wanglat James Lowangcha. Saint Mother Teresa visited on 2nd August 1993.
The first school that began 25 years ago in a small hut has grown into 46 schools and a bachelor degree college in east Arunachal Pradesh. All these schools have been registered and work under an umbrella-body called Newman Educational Society (NES) . To celebrate this anniversary we held a cultural event depicting the dances and cultures of the many different tribes of this region. The September 24-26 cultural festival, popularly known as Radiance, was organized by the Newman Education Society (NES).
550 students from 22 schools of Arunachal Pradesh camped at one place for three days to showcase their cultural talents and acquaint with other tribes of the northeastern Indian state. Toingam Wangpan, a tenth grader of the Light of the World school, said he has been attending the festival since 2015. At Radiance I have met friends of other schools and other tribes such as Tangsa and Nokte. “I am happy about it. I still keep in touch with them,” he said.
To mark and to take stock of the of the progress it has made in the field of education for the last 25 years, the NES undertook a survey-cum-study on the effectiveness of the schools and hostels run in the eight districts of east Arunachal Pradesh. The educational wing of the Diocese. NES led by its Secretary, Fr. Thomas Erambil with his expert team Sr. Jacinta FMA and Fr. Roy SVD went around every school and hostel, collected and collated the data to come to a comprehensive summary of the progress of service of education the Catholic Church has rendered for the past 25 years in east Arunachal.
According to the latest survey done at the beginning of this academic year 2017, the NES has over 16,000 students studying in its 46 schools.It listed remoteness of places, their inaccessibility, landslides, and parents’ poverty as major challenges to education mission. Mungtang Mossang, among the first Arunachali to receive Catholic education, says the Church’s educational apostolate has reached every village in the eastern part of his state. “Earlier we used to hunt for good schools in far way places but today it is like a good school has walked right into our door-step,” he added.
Nepha Wangsa, another past pupil of NES and gold medalist from Rajiv Gandhi University, said the remoteness of the villages and absence of good schools made hostels an absolute necessity. “Without these good hostels, we would have been left far behind in education,” he added. The 62 hostels spread across the eight districts cater to 1,632 boys and 1,374 girls this year.
Looking back at those days 25 years ago, in a temporary bamboo house, with no water, electricity and thing that can call facility, with 28 small boys in the hostel and 58 in school and the physical and mental agony that we went through, I feel it was all worth as we see two generations of young men and women climbing the ladder of life. It was a challenge, there were threats, elements of jealousy but faith and love helped us to surpass all those. My hats off to the people of Borduria who made it all possible. I also thank you dear friends whose generous loving support have been essential to the development of all these schools and hostels, you are helping transform lives of young people for generations of young people.
A big thank you to each of you for being part of this mission. Be sure of my prayers. God bless you all. Please do continue to pray for us all.
