Zimbabwe’s extraordinary performance
The Zimbabwe cricket team has delivered one of the most remarkable and extraordinary performances in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026, transforming from underdogs into genuine contenders and giant-killers. Zimbabwe has stunned the cricketing world with their dominant performance in Group B, remaining unbeaten throughout the group stage and finishing at the top of the table to advance to the Super 8s for the first time in their T20 World Cup history. This resurgence comes after years of challenges, including financial issues and administrative hurdles, making it even more inspiring. Zimbabwe's performance has rekindled hope for associate and emerging nations, proving that structured preparation, young talent integration and fearless cricket can challenge the established order. As they enter the Super 8s, Zimbabwe carry momentum as the only unbeaten side from the group stage and the tournament's biggest underdog story so far.
Rupak G. Duarah,
Rajahnagar, Guwahati
The Spokespersons
It is a usual practice for any political party to have its own spokespersons to represent the party on the right platform and in the right moment, pleading the causes of their party with proper facts and figures. While doing so, some spokespersons may impress us, while others may disappoint us due to their poor vocabulary. In this regard I beg to quote the names of two gentlemen, named Sanjeev Patra and Sudhanshu Trivedi, who always used to silence their critics. They talk sense.
Dr. Ashim Chowdhury,
Guwahati.
Classrooms in crisis
A disturbing set of statistics on government schools in Assam was recently placed before the Legislative Assembly by Education Minister Dr Ranoj Pegu. The figures lay bare a worrying trend. Between 2016–17 and 2024–25, as many as 6,592 primary schools, 1,489 upper primary schools, and 178 high schools have either been wound up or phased out across the state. The situation grows more alarming when one looks at staffing. Around 2,670 schools are somehow managing to carry on with just a single teacher, forced to juggle multiple responsibilities to keep classrooms going. At the same time, 4,805 posts in upper primary schools, 7,396 in high schools, and 242 in higher secondary institutions remain unfilled. Adding to the strain, 13,614 permanent headmaster posts in primary schools and 3,402 in upper primary schools are lying vacant, leaving administrative leadership hanging in the balance. To top it all off, Assamese-medium schools continue to thin out year after year.
Even as the BJP-led state government rolls out claims of providing employment to educated youth, particularly in educational institutions, these numbers tell a different story. The statistics do not quite line up with the narrative being built up in public discourse. Instead of easing the burden, the gaps appear to be widening.
It is time for the concerned department to step up, fill up long-pending vacancies, and shore up the weakening foundation of the state’s education system. If urgent corrective measures are not brought in, the situation may spiral further. After all, a society cannot move ahead or measure up to modern standards if its education system is allowed to fall behind.
Dipen Gogoi,
Teok, Jorhat
Irony of the Mother Tongue
This article hits a painful truth that many of us prefer to ignore. The decline of the mother tongue is not happening because someone has banned it, but because we ourselves have slowly stopped trusting it. We have reduced our language to emotions and rituals, while reserving English for knowledge, power and opportunity. In doing so, we have unknowingly declared our own language “unfit” for the future. What hurts most is the hypocrisy. We celebrate Mother Language Day with speeches and posters, but in real life we hesitate to teach our children in the mother tongue. We feel proud when speaking about culture, yet we feel insecure using our own language in classrooms, offices, and digital spaces. This is not modernity; it's insecurity disguised as progress. A language dies, not when people stop speaking it, but when it's excluded from education, science, technology, and governance. When students cannot study science or search the internet in their mother tongue, the message is clear: real knowledge exists elsewhere. That silent message is more destructive than any external threat. If we truly love our mother tongue, emotional attachment is not enough.
It must be made useful, powerful and relevant in everyday life. Governments, institutions and educated citizens should all share responsibility. Most importantly, we must stop seeing our language as backward and start treating it as capable of carrying modern thought. Saving the mother tongue is not about the past; it's about intellectual freedom in the future. Losing it means losing the confidence to think, create and question in our own voice. And that loss would not be an accident; it would be our own doing.
Aditya Kamble
(adiikamble16@gmail.com)