School President's Post conferred to the hills

Kalimpong: The posts of president and vice-president of the Association of Schools for ISC, Bengal chapter have gone to the hills for the first time this year.

The election took place at Rockvale Academy which has been hosting the 10th annual general meeting and regional conference that concluded here today.

While Rabindra Subba, director of Himali Boarding School, Kurseong, was elected the president by a slender margin of three votes, Prakash M. Pradhan, director of Rockvale, was elected his deputy unopposed. Navarun Dey, principal of Central Model School, Calcutta, will be the new secretary.

The hills-based institutions will now have an opportunity to articulate their problems better in an organisation dominated by member schools from the plains. “We can now take up our issues at the national level,” Pradhan said.

The two issues that the institutions here want to take up immediately are the holding of the ICSE exams at the end of the academic session in the hills — which is from March to November-December — and problems arising out of last minute cancellation of papers.

“The most important area of concern of the members was the government’s attempt to have its say in matters regarding fixing of fees in unaided schools,” said Subba.

In his keynote address, Jetasanskritayan, a professor of economics in North Bengal University, said: “The new ICSE schools that have come up in the last 25 years have made it possible for ordinary people to get good education.”

Pointing out a phenomenal increase in the demand for education, Jetasanskritayan predicted this trend will continue for many years given that 54 per cent of the country’s population is below 25 years.

Over 100 delegates from Bengal and the North-eastern states attended the two-day meet which was inaugurated by local MLA Gaulan Lepcha.

Source: The Telegraph