Minister spells out education roadmap

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, May 14: For teachers, activities in classrooms and demonstrations on the streets cannot go together. Thus said new Education Minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya while spelling out the would-be roadmap of his department soon after assuming office at Janata Bhawan here on Monday,

Talking to the media, Bhattacharya said: “Teachers violating service rules will have to face the music. Incidents like teachers taking to the streets when they are supposed to be with students in classrooms are violation of service rules. There are also teachers making statements against government authorities in social media. These are serious violation of service rules and discipline. We’re going to act tough against such incidents shortly.”

On educational reforms, Bhattacharya said: “At present preprimary classes are with anganwadi centres. We’re contemplating on bringing preprimary classes to the primary educational institutions. School infrastructure is something that needs to be developed more. Why should parents send their wards to such schools that have no proper infrastructure? While the department is to go ahead with the existing policy of appointing teachers through TET, the existing Gunatsav is to be implemented in high school-level as well.”

On private schools charging exorbitant rates of fees, the minister said: “Such schools should follow certain limits in hiking fees. If need be, we’re going to take some regulations for them to follow.”