Mizoram Hopes to Upstage Shillong as The New Education Destination

High literacy state dreams big

New learning curve

Aizawl, Apr 1: Mizoram is planning to build an education empire, making its sterling literacy rate the capital.

The Congress government is planning to turn the hill state into the new education hub of the Northeast, upstaging Shillong, which has so far been the learning destination, by establishing a number of institutes.

Mizoram minister for education and law Lalsawta today said over telephone from Aizawl that these new institutes would aim at drawing students from various states of the Northeast, apart from neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal.

He said among a fresh crop of “classy” higher educational centres, which the Mizoram government has proposed to set up, are a National Institute of Technology (NIT) and a university in collaboration with a group of education entrepreneurs from Singapore.

At present, Mizoram only has a Central University, which has its campus in Thanril, a bustling new neighborhood of Aizawl.

Currently, the Northeast boasts of only two NITs — one in the Silcoorie area on the southern fringes of Silchar and another in Agartala.

Lalsawta said four more polytechnic colleges would also spring up in the state with central grants.

Mizoram now has two government polytechnics — one in Aizawl and another in Lunglei, the second most populous town in the state’s southern flanks, bordering Myanmar.

Regarding the new NIT in Mizoram, the education minister said its entire cost would be borne by the Centre.

The site and the possible cost of this new institute are yet to be planned, and a team of specialists has been engaged to arrive at a consensus on the issue.

Lalsawta said a few sites in and around Aizawl town are now being considered for the proposed NIT.

The NIT in Nagpur, Maharashtra, has been given the responsibility to act as the intermediary for building the model, formulating subjects and courses and estimating the possible costs for establishing the high-tech NIT in Mizoram.

To begin with, Rs 100 crore will be pumped in to raise the infrastructure for the institute, the minister said.

A team of the educational entrepreneurs from Singapore had also visited the state and met state chief minister Lalthanhawla to discuss the possibility of setting up of the second university in Mizoram, which Lalsawta said would be named after Rajiv Gandhi.

The team would make some more trips to Mizoram before evolving a blueprint for the new university.

[ via The Telegraph India ]