Depriving students of science education

It is a very sad story that as many as 27 provincialised colleges across Assam have failed to introduce science streams, despite government approval and sanction more than eight years ago. As prominently reported on the front page of the Sunday edition of this newspaper, it was in 2018 that the Government of Assam originally granted financial and administrative approvals to launch science streams across 50 specific colleges to improve students’ access to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics). However, progress has remained deeply uneven: while 23 colleges have successfully implemented the programmes, the remaining 27 have miserably failed to either enrol science students or set up active departments due to persistent infrastructure and bureaucratic bottlenecks. The colleges that have defaulted are located throughout the state, including DK Girls’ College near Guwahati, HBP Girls’ College in Golaghat, Sarbodaya College in Jorhat, Barkhetri College in Nalbari, South Salmara College in South Salmara, Khairabari College in Udalguri, Bikali College in Goalpara, Chabua College in Dibrugarh, and North Bank College in Lakhimpur. This situation, however, does not just reflect the alleged inefficiency of the respective college principals and their governing bodies. The state education department, particularly the bureaucrats responsible for ensuring that the government’s good intentions are fulfilled in both letter and spirit, must also share the blame, especially given its solemn objective to provide the best options to every student in the state, regardless of whether they live in a metropolitan city or a remote district town. Every student is talented, and the authorities are not supposed to deprive them.