25 years of Catholic Education in East Arunachal Pradesh

The Church in East Arunachal Pradesh marks 25 years of its first school in a small hut which has now grown into 46 schools and a bachelor degree college, under an umbrella-body called Newman Education Society (NES). 

The first Catholic school and hostel in East Arunachal Pradesh were opened on 3rd July 1992 in Borduria village in Tirap District of Arunachal Pradesh. Bishop George Pallipparambil SDB, who was courageous enough to open this first Catholic school says he felt privileged to be the one to take this daring step 25 years ago. 

The land for it was offered by Mr. Wanglat James Lowangcha. Saint Mother Teresa visited this place on 2nd August 1993. As the school and the number of children grew up, the school had to be shifted to a bigger facility to its present location and the Missionaries of Charity run a shelter for women at the original location today.

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.

The study was a multi-pronged one and covered every possible area of the life of the students and staff in the school. The students as well as staff actively participated in the study cum survey. The facilities, implementation of the juvenile justice act 2000, Right to free and compulsory Education 2009, Prevention of children from sexual offences (POSCO) 2012 etc., also were studied.

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. The schools have reached the last villages of east Arunachal, with TCL (Tirap, Changlang and Longding) districts having 31 of the 46 schools. Changlang has maximum schools with 11 NES run schools and Tirap and Longding has 10 each. Lohit District has six schools, Namsai District has five and Lower Dibang Valley District has four of the 46 Catholic Schools. (Miao Diocese)