Why are Assam primary schools in such a sorry state? TNT-The Northeast Today highlights five major findings

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GUWAHATI, February 27, 2018: Taking a cue from Gujarat, the BJP led government in Assam conducted Gunatsav to assess the standard of education in the state's 48,966 primary schools covering 30,11,885 students.

The three phase assessment in the past one year in all the 33 districts revealed some surprising state of affairs in the state's government-run primary schools.

TNT-The Northeast Today highlights at least five major findings of the exercise, which was termed as historic by the state education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Guwahati on Tuesday.

#1. At least 20 per cent students were found missing in their schools. The education minister said this could be because the students' names were shown in enrollment book to get excess mid-day meal and uniforms or the students of some non-provincialised schools were enrolled in government schools and they did not turn up during the Gunatsav.

#2. It was found that free uniforms had not been provided since 2013 although the Congress government in the state claimed uniforms were being provided to primary school students free of cost.

#3. At least 70 per cent primary schools were found to have no electricity connections. Shortage of classrooms were found in the schools which was provincialised in 2013. On records such schools were shown having sufficient number of classrooms but the same were found to be opposite during the assessment.

#4. At least 1,300 schools lacks toilets and drinking water facilities. Absence of such facilities is one of the major causes of drop outs in the primary schools.

#5. At least 5,120 schools had shortage of teachers while 3,579 schools had excess teachers. The department has started transfer of 10,000 teachers to bridge the teacher-student ratio in the schools by April this year. The education minister said the department require nearly Rs. 963 crores to address all the problems and improve the state's primary school education.

(TNT-The Northeast Today news)

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