Shillong, Apr 23: The 22 students affected by a food poisoning incident in a residential school in Karnataka arrived in in Shillong on Wednesday.
Welcoming the students, social welfare minister Paul Lyngdoh assured that they would be admitted to government schools.
The students were accompanied by a senior official of Child and Women Rights Commission.
Parents of the students are in touch with officials coordinating students’ return and further education facilities, the minister said after a meeting at Directorate of Social Welfare.
The students had left their studies midway after the unfortunate incident that also cost the life of two students from Meghalaya.
Education department has assured of facilitating their admission in government-run schools in their respective areas, Lyngdoh said.
In case of wards of migrant workers, who keep shifting their residential addresses, efforts are on to get the correct address to ensure their admission in nearby schools, he said.
“When they shift, they have to give us prior notice so that we facilitate their next admission in course of their movement from place to place,” he said.
When asked, Lyngdoh said the government has nothing to do with sending these children for studies to Karnataka.
The students were taken to Karnataka for studies by a Jowai-based NGO with consent from their parents.
The government intervened only after the death of two students in the food poisoning incident, he said.
Advising proper guidance in case of seeking education for children outside the state, he also pointed out that the government is mandated to provide education to all children between the age of 6 and 14 under RTE Act 2013.
