Staff Reporter
Guwahati: In a concerning development, the state government has again decided to amalgamate or merge elementary schools with an enrolment of fewer than 30 students. Notably, during the past decade, thousands of schools in the state were closed due to poor student enrolment, following the state government’s decision to amalgamate or merge such schools with nearby ones.
The Directorate of Elementary Education (DEE), Assam, has now directed all District Elementary Education Officers (DEEOs) to urgently examine and submit proposals for the amalgamation or merger of elementary schools with enrolment below 30 students.
Based on data from Samagra Shiksha Assam, the DEE has prepared a list of schools with enrolments below 30 and shared it with the district authorities. Sources estimate the number of schools in the list at around 1,000.
In an official communication issued by DEE, the DEEOs have been instructed to conduct a detailed assessment of each school using information available on the Siksha Setu portal, including student enrolment, infrastructure, accessibility and distance from nearby schools. They are also required to examine whether there are physical barriers or heavy vehicular traffic between the schools proposed to be merged and the designated base schools.
The notification directs district officials to determine whether the identified schools qualify for amalgamation and whether the base schools possess adequate infrastructure to accommodate additional students. Officials have also been instructed to provide detailed justifications and certify that all information has been verified thoroughly, including accessibility, infrastructure and other relevant parameters.
The Directorate has sought both hard and soft copies of the proposals and warned that any misinformation detected later would attract personal responsibility on the part of the reporting officer.
Describing the matter as a “Top Most Urgent” one, the directorate has instructed all district officers to submit their reports immediately without fail.
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