There are around 8,000 refugee children from Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Manipur enrolled in Mizoram schools, according to Edu Min

According to Mizoram’s School Education Minister Lalchhandama Ralte, more than 8,000 children of refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh as well as internally displaced persons (IDPs) from war-torn Manipur are enrolled in schools there.

According to him, 6,366 of the 8,119 kids are from Myanmar, 250 are from Bangladesh, and 1,503 are from Manipur.

Like local kids, the students, according to Ralte, get free lunches, textbooks, and school uniforms.

He said that these youngsters, who are from the Zo tribes, would get schooling from the Mizoram government.

“The Zo tribes from all over the globe are seen as one by the Mizoram administration. This idea is also present in our educational system. In addition to housing, our government also helps individuals in need get an education, Ralte told reporters on Tuesday.

In 2022, 44 refugee children, according to him, had enrolled for the class 10 board exams, and 31 of them had taken the test.

He claimed that out of the 31 kids, 28 had passed their board exams with a 90.32 percent pass rate. According to the minister, enrolment in public schools has increased continuously over the last four years, which is a sign that the quality of instruction in these institutions has improved.

According to him, there were 1,15,005 pupils enrolled in total for the 2019–20 school year. This number grew to 1,19,133 in 2020–21 and then to 1,28,927 in 2021–22.

He said that initiatives are being made to give studying the Mizo language in the curriculum top priority.

Numerous Kuki-Chin refugees from Bangladesh and Myanmar have sought safety in Mizoram.

Following a military takeover in the neighboring nation of Myanmar in February 2021, the majority of the Chin state’s citizens fled to Mizoram, while asylum seekers from Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) arrived in the region following a military incursion against an ethnic rebel organization the previous year.

After racial unrest with Meiteis erupted in May, Kuki Internally Displaced Persons from Manipur fled and sought refuge in Mizoram.