Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: The Project Approval Board (PAB) of the Union Ministry of Education, Government of India, is not happy with the enrollment ratio, single-teacher schools, and gross access ratio (GAR) in Assam.
The PAB reviewed Assam's Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWP&B) for 2025-26 under Samagra Shiksha in New Delhi recently under the chairmanship of the Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy (DoSE&L). Key issues concerning school enrolment, teacher deployment, access to education, and other issues in Assam were discussed.
The PAB appreciated the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at the primary level (110.5). The GER is 92.3 at the upper-primary level and 76.7 at the secondary level. The PAB left a note that the state needs to improve the GER at the higher secondary level, which is 37.6. It urged the state to attain 100 percent GER at all the levels.
The review meeting also stated that as compared to the GER, the Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) is even lower, especially at the secondary (52.8) and higher secondary levels (18.2). The PAB urged the state to analyse the school-wise data and ensure that appropriate steps are taken to improve the transition rate, reduce the dropout rate, and thereby achieve the goals laid out in National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The PAB chairman expressed his concern regarding the reduction in the number of enrolments in government and government-aided schools from 5,524,402 in 2018-19 to 5,189,931 in 2023-24, to which the Secretary (Education), Assam, responded that the State of Assam has done a data cleansing exercise using AADHAAR verification.
The review meeting also took note of the fact that the number of schools with less than 30 enrolments has increased from 7,935 primary schools in 2022-23 to 8,071 primary schools in 2023-24. The state also has 582 upper-primary schools with less than 30 enrolments in 2023-24. Further, the meeting observed that the number of schools with adverse pupil-teacher ratios (PTR) is high (primary 22.3%, upper-primary 14.1%).
The PAB said that the state has quite a substantial number of single-teacher schools that have increased in primary and upper-primary levels from 2,217 in 2022-23 to 2,462 in 2023-24. In view of this, the meeting requested the state to analyse the situation and take appropriate corrective steps to ensure compliance with the provisions of the act, norms, and guidelines issued from time to time.
The review meeting observed that the state has a very high number of unserved habitations-222(0.28%) villages are without access to primary schools, and 211 (0.26%) villages are without access to upper-primary schools.
The PAB advised the state to identify these areas and improve access in such habitations to ensure compliance with the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) norms expeditiously so that all children have access to schooling within the prescribed distance.
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