IMPHAL, March 1: The January 4 earthquake had affected 24 government and aided colleges and damaged around 254 government schools in the State, Education minister Moirangthem Okendro told the House today.
The minister was replying to Thoungju MLA Th Bishwajit during the Question hour.
Okendro continued, however, the authorities are unable to gather all the details of the schools yet.
He also added that the Government Polytechnic Takyel, SCERT Directorate/ DIET Centre Imphal and Kakching were also affected by the earthquake.
He said almost around 254 schools were majorly damaged with many structures developing cracks and some dismantled totally by the quake.
However, classes are continued in these schools, he added.
Okendro added we are unable to reflect the same in the budget as the assessment is not complete till date as the schools are mostly in the hill districts.
However, once the assessment is completed, we will send a report to the National Disaster Management Authority, he said adding that repairing all the schools may incur a lot of money.
The Education department has also not issued any allotment to shift the schools anywhere, he said.
Since 2013, only three private schools have been allowed to shift their location, he said.
The minister also added that allotment for new colleges is made according to an MU Ordinance.
Replying to another question from MLA Bishwajit, the minister said the preparation of the Manipur Government Employees Lists has been completed for over 12,000 teachers and there are only about 1011 teachers left to be verified.
The total staff strength of the Education department including non-teaching staff is 19,487 of which verification of 203 teachers are yet to begin, he said.
As for posting and transfer of teachers, the department is yet to have a concrete policy as the DP also needs to issue a notification even as the State cabinet has approved it, he added.