Congress left elementary education in gutter! Will Sarma gird up his loins?

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, August 13: Elementary education encompasses grades I-VIII and students learn basic skills in areas such as reading, writing and mathematics in this period. Over the past 15-year Congress rule, elementary education in Assam had been in such a State that deprived majority of the students learning basic skill of reading, writing and mathematics smoothly due to failure on the part of the Education Department to provide a large number of schools with adequate number of teachers.

As many as 11,764 posts of elementary teachers – 6,367 of lower primary (LP) and 5,397 of upper primary (UP) – have been vacant in the State. The highest number of such vacant posts of elementary school teacher is in gaon district. The district has as many as 994 vacant posts of elementary school teachers, the break-up being 517 of LP schools and 477 of UP schools. It is followed by Dhubri with 937 vacant posts – 457 of LP schools and 480 of UP schools. With such a large number of vacant posts in the elementary schools in the State, one can guess what kind of elementary education has been prevailing in the State.

Barring Darrang and Sivasagar districts, all other districts of the State have a large number of single-teacher schools. Karbi Anglong has the highest number of such schools – as many as 3,967 LP schools and 11 UP schools. While Kokrajhar and Udalguri each has 266 such schools, Dibrugarh has 262, Baska has 237, Dima Hasao has 225, Kamrup has 222, Dhurbi has 262, etc.

The number of posts of TET teachers lying vacant in the State is no less. As many as 11,060 posts in LP and 2,157 posts in UP schools have been lying vacant.

These are the information regarding the state of elementary education in the State during the past 15 years in the State as State Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told the State Assembly today. The minister said this while replying to a question raised by AGP MLA Phani Bhushan Choudhury.

The reply of the minister smacks of the plight of elementary education in the State at which the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government left. If the standard of education is to be taken out from this gutter, what steps the present dispensation at Dispur has to take?  Will Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma gird up his loins?