The Chief Minister didn’t just make promises from a podium. He reminded everyone that he was once sitting exactly where those students are.
Itanagar, September 10 — There was something different about the way Pema Khandu spoke on Wednesday. Standing before bright-eyed students, proud parents, and a room full of educators at the state-level Golden Jubilee Meritorious Students’ Awards ceremony in Itanagar, the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh didn’t just deliver a policy speech. He shared a memory.
Khandu recalled studying at Government Gompa Middle School in Tawang — being part of the very first batch when the school was upgraded to the secondary level. That personal touch wasn’t incidental. It set the tone for everything he said next.
The Arunachal Pradesh government, Khandu announced, is actively working to improve the quality of government schools across the state. The plan rests on three pillars — stronger infrastructure, enough teachers in the right classrooms, and the full rollout of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. A dedicated task force has already been put in place to drive NEP implementation forward.
On the teacher shortage — a problem that has quietly strangled learning outcomes in the state for years — Khandu said substantial recruitment of subject teachers through the State Public Service Commission has already been carried out. It’s a step that those who’ve watched rural schools sit half-staffed for seasons on end will find welcome, even if cautiously so.
What also caught attention was the Chief Minister’s remarks on school enrolment. Government schools across Arunachal Pradesh are seeing a rise in enrolment, something Khandu called “encouraging” — especially at a time when many states are watching students quietly drift toward private institutions. Whether this trend holds will be worth tracking.
The ceremony itself honoured 30 toppers from Classes 3 to 12 for the 2024-25 academic session. Across various district-level events, around 840 students received meritorious awards — not a small number for a state of Arunachal’s size. Khandu felicitated the winners and urged them to stay disciplined and committed, while also acknowledging the silent army behind every topper: parents, teachers, and friends who rarely make it into the frame.
He spoke about sports too, pointing out that government schools in the state have playgrounds and that physical development matters just as much as academic performance. He also pressed students to think beyond textbooks when it comes to careers — the government, he said, is creating opportunities in both the public and private sectors, and entrepreneurship is being actively encouraged.
For those with a different kind of ambition, Khandu had a specific message — consider the armed forces. The state’s first Sainik School has come up at Pasighat, and a second is in the works at Tawang. The government is also coordinating with the Army to build a structured coaching programme for students eyeing the NDA and CDS examinations. That’s a concrete pathway, not just a rallying cry.
Woven through all of it was something harder to quantify but equally important — a call to preserve Arunachal’s tribal identity. Khandu reminded students that respecting parents, elders, and teachers isn’t a formality. It’s heritage.
A Chief Minister who once sat in a government school classroom in Tawang, now pushing to make those classrooms better for the next generation — if the follow-through matches the intent, Arunachal’s students might just be heading into a very different future.
