Staff Reporter
Guwahati: The Assam Education (Provincialisation of Services of Teachers and Re-Organisation of Educational Institutions (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which was tabled by Education Minister Ranoj Pegu in the Assembly today, if passed, will pave the way for venture schools and colleges to be provincialized if they possess even one government document dated on or before January 1, 2006. Documents like permission or recognition or concurrence or no-objection certificate issued by the government will make such institutions eligible for provincialisation.
The Bill states, "It is expedient to provincialise the services of the teachers of the venture educational institutions and also re-organize and streamline the Educational Institutions up to the Degree level in the State of Assam so as to conform to the prevailing statutory norms and standards with further objective to restrict any further growth of such Venture Educational Institutions in the State of Assam. Therefore the Assam Education (Provincialisation of Services of Teachers and Re-Organisation of Education Institutions) Act, 2017 and the Assam Education (Provincialisation of Services of Teachers and Re-Organisation of Education Institutions) (Amendment) Act, 2018 were enacted to facilitate the provincialisation of Schools having eligible criteria that were provisioned in the Act with the prime objective to maintain the quality of education in the State and increase access to Schools".
With the stated Act in force, the government undertook the exercise in the year 2017 and issued the order of provincialisation of the services of the eligible teachers and tutors in the year 2021. During the process, a few teachers and schools were left out due to the ambiguities in the provisions of the Act, and grievances were raised. In response, the Government constituted a Cabinet Sub-Committee, and the Committee, after an elaborate discussion with all the stakeholders, recommended a few modifications to bring clarity and uniformity to the Act's provisions.
The legislative intent behind the proposed amendment is to provide clarity, resolve ambiguities, and avoid inclusion of ineligible teachers in the purview of provincialisation.
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