Leaping Ahead Education in Assam Achievements 2001-2003

Achievements at a Glance

House-to-House survey conducted in 75,000 habitations all over the state. Technical survey conducted for 40,000 elementary schools all over the state. 2,000 building-less schools have been taken up for construction. Construction of all building-less schools in the state will be completed by 2003. 1.6 lakh ‘out of school children’ of 7-9 years of age group studying in bridge courses throughout the state were enrolled in formal school during April 2003. May 2003 More than 6 lakh members of VEC/SMC and GPEC trained regarding UEE. Huge spurt in enrolment due to enrolment drive conducted during February–March 2003. Remote areas, forest areas, tribal areas, tea garden areas and char areas have shown highest increase in enrolment. Almost 90 per cent of 5-6 year old children have been enrolled. 70,000 primary school teachers have undergone a 7-day teacher-training programme throughout the state. New textbooks have been developed for classes III & IV in Assamese, Bengali and Bodo medium. The State Government has supplied free textbooks to all students from class I to VII in the current academic session. Around 1.5 crore copies have already been distributed. Published by Special focus has been given to the requirements of disadvantaged areas like char, Education Department tea garden, tribal, forest and international border areas. For tea and ex-tea garden Government of Assam areas which include extension of Mid-day Meal, free textbooks to tea garden managed Dispur, Guwahati schools, extension of education department’s supervision to tea garden managed schools, conduct of bridge courses in tea garden areas, preparation of bridge language materials. A new dimension has been given for school support and supervision system by institutionalising State Academic Core Group (SACG), District Academic Core Group (DACG) and Block Academic Core Group (BACG). An intensive quality improvement programme called Bidyajyoti has been launched in 500 schools with UNICEF assistance scheme in the districts of Darrang, Kamrup, Cachar, Nagaon and Jorhat. Around 2.5 lakh children of class I who had performed poorly or failed in the annual examination during January 2003 have received remedial coaching and have been promoted to class II. A pilot programme for Computer Aided Learning is being launched in 500 selected ME schools in the entire state. This is a unique intervention that will help children to learn through locally developed multi media. Leaping Ahead Education in Assam Achievements 2001-2003

Education Department Government of Assam

Tarun Gogoi Chief BeginningMinisterBeginning Assam

Message

The cornerstone of the new initiatives in elementary education is the meaningful involvement of the community. A systematic effort is being made to empower people’s committees and Panchayats for effective decentralization of the management of elementary education.

The state government is committed to provide schooling facility to every habitation within a walking distance of 1.5 Km. Basic infrastructure facility of every school is being strengthened. New buildings are being constructed for all building-less primary schools. Disadvantaged areas like char, tea garden, forest and border areas are being given priority in implementation of different educational interventions. The government is giving a special thrust on quality education by improving the curriculum, effective child-centred teaching- learning strategies and regular student evaluation mechanisms.

The thrust on accountability and performance is being extended to the secondary and higher education stages also.

Dispur, Dated the 13th May, 2003 (Tarun Gogoi) Pankaj Bora Education Minister Assam

Message

With the passing of the 86th Constitutional Amendment, education for children in the age group of 6-14 years has become free and compulsory. The state government is committed to meet the constitutional mandate and achieve universal elementary education within 2010. Systematic and concentrated efforts are being made to ensure universal enrolment, complete retention and satisfactory level of quality in education in the entire state. The achievements on this front in the past two years are really remarkable. Assam would be achieving universal physical access for primary education shortly. The focus is now on inclusion and participation of children of SC/ST, minority groups, urban deprived children, children of other disadvantaged groups and children with special needs in the educational process. The involvement of community through different people’s committees is being promoted to make the school system more efficient.

Certain initiatives have also been taken for improvement of quality at the secondary and higher education stages. The state government is attempting to give a big thrust to the Information Technology sector under Technical Education.

With support from the people, teachers and an improved educational system it is expected that the quality of educational services would improve significantly in the coming years.

Dispur, Dated the 13th May, 2003 (Pankaj Bora) Rupon Singh Ronghang Minister of State, Education Assam

Message

Our state has made remarkable advancement in education in the past two years. During the past three months we have successfully enrolled more than 8.5 lakh children of 6-14 years age group in primary schools through massive enrolment drives and successful implementation of Bridge Course programmes. The response of the community has also been very encouraging.

A concerted effort is underway to ensure effective involvement of the PRIs, SMCs, Village & Ward Education Committees in management of elementary schools.

The state government is also committed to develop a better and more relevant education system so that children find the schooling system meaningful according to their natural and social environment.

Accountability to people and transparency with decentralization are the major thrusts of educational change in Assam now.

Dispur, Dated the 12th May, 2003 (Rupan Singh Ronghang)

Contents

Universalisation of Elementary Education 9

Achievements in the past two years 10

Secondary Education 24

Higher Education 25

Technical Education 26

Archaeology 27

Museums 27

Library Service 28

Historical and Antiquarian Studies 28

UniversalisationUniversalisation ofof ElementarElementaryy EducationEducation

The work on Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE) began in right earnest in the later part of 2001-02. The state government is now committed to create conditions for achieving the Constitutional objective (86th Amendment Act) of free and compulsory education for all children in the age group of 6-14 years.

The UEE effort is being spearheaded by the Axom Sarba Siksha Abhijan Mission, a society under the education department. This Mission is responsible for implementation of the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP), Sarba Siksha Abhijan (SSA), and other schemes of elementary education.

Goals of Universal Elementary Education

All children in school, Education Guarantee Schools or alternate school centre, ‘back-to-school’ camp by 2003.

All children complete five years of primary schooling by 2007.

All children complete eight years of elementary schooling by 2010.

Focus on elementary education of satisfactory quality with emphasis on education for life.

Bridge all gender and social category gaps at primary stage by 2007 and at elementary education level by 2010.

Universal retention by 2010.

Achievements Leaping Ahead 9 Education in Assam 2001-2003 AchievementsAchievements inin thethe pastpast twotwo yearsyears

1. ‘Alokar Jatra’ (February to June 2002.) Alokar Jatra was a massive survey-cum-community mobilisation campaign launched to create a database on the educational status of children for facilitating the planning process under SSA.

Objective of Alokar Jatra To create a database on educational status of children for facilitating planning under Sarba Siksha Abhijan

To create awareness about the existing scenario of primary education among the village community by sharing the survey data at village and Gaon Panchayat levels.

Formation of Village Education Committees (VECs), Tea Garden Education Committees (TGECs), School Managing Committees (SMCs) and Gaon Panchayat Education Committees (GPECs) with the support of the community.

The entire process was transparent and Gaon Panchayat, the views and opinion of the community were taken on a wide range of issues relating to schooling of children, functioning and improvement of schools, appropriateness of the school calendar Survey sharing meeting and out of school children. Findings of

Leaping Ahead 10 Achievements Education in Assam 2001-2003 the survey were shared with all educational committees through open public meetings.

Micro Planning and School Mapping exercises were conducted in each habitation, village and tea garden divisions by the Block Resource Persons with the help of identified and trained village volunteers.

2. Reorientation of Planning exercise From the year 2002, planning for all developmental activities have been based on specific evidence/data relating to ‘out of school’ children, school building condition etc. This has ensured that the educationally disadvantaged areas get preferential allocation of funds. This ‘need-based’ decentralised planning for achieving UEE has been appreciated at the national level.

3. Community involvement in the UEE effort Community involvement in school improvement and enhancing demand for education in educationally disadvantaged areas through social mobilisation has been a key feature of the UEE effort in the past 2 years.

People’s Committees have been constituted at School, Village, Ward, Tea Garden, Gaon Panchayat, Anchalik Panchayat and district level.

The participation of the community is being achieved through the following measures:

Activities and empowerment of people’s committees formed during Alokar Jatra. SSA now provides regular support to these Committees, so that they can take up the Number of Committees formed so far : responsibility of universal enrolment and retention and 36,374 School Managing Committees, school improvement on their 21,460 Village Education Committees, own. A massive orientation 1,055 Tea Garden Education Committees, programme called Sankalpa Jatra for members of SMCs, 474 Ward Education Committees, and

VECs, TGECs, GPECs was 2,451 Gaon Panchayat Education Committees. organised from November 2002 to February 2003.

Achievements Leaping Ahead 11 Education in Assam 2001-2003 Sankalpa Jatra - A Determined Step Forward

It was a mass orientation and training monitoring the educational status, fund programme of the peoples’ committees that distribution, sanitation, power given to the were formed in the 23 districts all over the PRIs etc. House-to-house visits were made state and the objective was to orient the by these representatives and significant committees on their roles and responsibilities mobilisation of the community happened regarding the educational status of the through these contact drives. community. The training module included During the five day tightly packed schedule, issues like role of these committees in the trainees went to schools and discussed the problems faced by the schools and the community. The issues and topics that emerged in these discussions were the basis of the ‘School Development Plan’ developed by the VECs and TGECs.

Name of committee Total number of members trained VEC 214600 SMC 327456 TGEC 10550 GPEC 61275 Training imparted to members of Village Education Committee, Gaon Total 613881 Panchayat Education Committee & Tea Garden Education Committee

Panchayati Raj Institutions especially Gaon Panchayats (GPs) have been actively involved in programme implementation under SSA. Panchayat Presidents and members have been involved in campaigns to bring ‘out-of- school’ children into regular schools through bridge courses, enrolment drives, setting up of Education Guarantee Schools (EGS) etc.

Special campaigns and mobilisation work have been carried out in tea garden, remote forest areas and minority dominated areas.

In some districts, Mothers’ Groups have been formed to help in universal enrolment and attendance of children. Plans are now afoot to give an active role to the community in planning for school improvement and monitoring the performance of children. Decentralisation and empowerment of people is the cornerstone of UEE efforts in Assam

Leaping Ahead 12 Achievements Education in Assam 2001-2003 4. Ensuring universal access and enrolment In Assam, there is no policy for setting up of new schools by the state government. More than 6000 habitations/villages do not have a government/ provincialised primary school within a distance of 1.5 km. Now the process of setting up of community schools under the decentralised control of VECs and Gaon Panchayats is underway. Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) schools called ‘Amar Parhashali’ will help to ensure universal physical access for all children in Assam by July, 2003.

Under the house-to-house survey conducted during 2002, information was collected on the educational status of every child in Assam. Thus the location of every ‘out of school’ child is now known according to his/her age, sex and community. This has helped in planning of the major initiatives for UEE launched during 2002-03. Every village maintains a Village Education Register (VER) containing details of educational status of each child. Based on this the planning for enrolment drives, house-to-house visit and bridge course is done by the VEC, Village Task Groups or Panchayats.

4.1 Enrolment drive As a part of the Shishur Uttaran Programme, a massive enrolment drive was carried out during January to March 2003. VECs, SMCs, GPECs, TGECs, Mother Groups and NGOs were mobilised to ensure 100 per cent enrolment of children in the 5-6 years age group. The results have been remarkable. Almost 90 per cent of children in the age group of 5-6 years have been enrolled in class I during the 2003 academic session. The total reported enrolment in class I during 2003 is about 9 lakh children.

As a part of the concerted effort to ensure universal enrolment in the 6-14 year age group, some districts have taken special measures by forming village, panchayat and block level task forces for UEE. The efforts of the past Enrolment drive

Achievements Leaping Ahead 13 Education in Assam 2001-2003 Towards Universal Elementary Education…

A number of Gaon Panchayats all over the state achieved the distinction of being the first among Gaon Panchayats to achieve 100 percent enrolment. These GPs came in two categories- i) 100 per cent enrolment of all children in the 6-14 years age group and ii) 100 per cent enrolment of all children in the 5-6 year age group.

Districts with 100 % enrolment Minister Education felicitating Zila Parishad President of ( 6-14 years age group) Goalpara district for achieving Universal Enrolment

District No. of GPs were felicitated by Shri Pankaj Bora, Bongaigaon 33 Honourable Minister of Education, Shri Ripun Sonitpur 4 Bora, Honourable Minister of Panchayat and Goalpara 22 Rural Development and Shri R S Ronghang, Honourable Minister of State for Education and Districts with 100 % enrolment in Health. Dr. Prem Saran, Commissioner, the 5-6 year age group Education and Dr. Birendranath Dutta, District No. of GPs President, Asom Sahitya Sabha, were among Hailakandi 39 the distinguished guests in this widely attended Golaghat 74 and highly publicised felicitation programme. Darrang 15 Every Gaon Panchayat that has achieved Tinsukia 30 universal enrolment has been given a grant of Nagaon 19 Rupees five thousand to plan additional Cachar 17 activities in the Panchayats. Sibsagar 7 Nalbari 34 Dhemaji 21 Morigaon 11 Jorhat 36 Kokrajhar 54 Dhubri 24 Barpeta 29 Karimganj 16

In a state level programme conducted on the 8th of May 2003, all Gaon Panchayats of the first Minister Education (State) felicitating Gaon Panchayat category and some from the second category President for achieving Universal Enrolment in the GP

Leaping Ahead 14 Achievements Education in Assam 2001-2003 UEE in Towns

Earlier educational programmes like the District children. Work has been started in eleven towns Primary Education Programme (DPEP) were of Assam in collaboration with local NGOs. completely rural based and did not have interventions for urban children. The Sarba Siksha Deprived children in urban areas come from Abhijan included within its gambit the children various backgrounds and depending on these residing in urban areas under the component they are categorised as easy, hard-to-reach and called Deprived Urban Children. The problems very hard-to-reach. of urban areas are peculiar and different from those of rural areas and so different strategies The survey placed the number of out of school have to be adopted to deal with them. Since children in the 5-6 year age-groups at eight deprived urban children were never included in thousand and five hundred. The NGOs under the earlier programmes so there was a paucity of data aegis of ‘Sarba Siksha Abhijan’ conducted an as well as ideas on the problem. Enrolment Drive and admitted almost seven thousand of these children in schools. Of the total The Sarba Siksha Abhijan started survey in thirty number of children in the 7-8 year age group, 2856 nine towns of the districts through a ward-wise (80-90 per cent of the total number) have been child-tracking method. The methodology adopted admitted into ninety four Bridge Course centres had to be different because the nature of the set up in nine towns of the state. problem was different. A remedial teaching programme for all newly The survey identified two hundred and twelve enrolled deprived urban children has also been pockets with very high number of out-of-school started.

one year have borne fruit and several Gaon Panchayats (and villages) have achieved enrolment of every child in the age group 6-14 years. The UEE campaign has brought a sense of competition among panchayats who are now striving to achieve universal enrolment ahead of others.

5. Mainstreaming ‘out of school’ children The major strategy for ensuring admission of ‘out of school’ children into regular schools is the bridge course strategy.

A bridge course is a condensed programme for accelerated learning of varying duration of three months to one year for ‘out of school’ children in the 5-14 years age group to ensure their admission into regular schools into age- appropriate classes.

Achievements Leaping Ahead 15 Education in Assam 2001-2003 31,000 children in the 5-7 years age groups were admitted to class I on 16th August 2002 at the end of a 45-day bridge course.

1,60,000 children in the age group of 7-9 years were mainstreamed into Class II on 24th April 2003 at the end of a two-and-a half month bridge course.

Another 70,000 children are expected to be mainstreamed into classes II or III end of May, 2003.

A long term bridge course called ‘Natun Diganta’ of eight months duration will be started in June 2003 for ‘out of school’ children in the 8-10 years age group.

A residential bridge course (RBC) for 10-14 years old girls has been started in Dalgaon block of Darrang district with about 120 girls. RBCs are planned in eight other districts.

The challenge is to ensure that children admitted into formal schools attend regularly and do not drop out.

6. Improvement of School Infrastructure A systemic approach has been devised to undertake the civil works intervention in schools based on pre-defined norms and needs.

A comprehensive assessment of the infrastructure requirement for every school has been made through a Technical Infrastructure Survey covering each of the 40,000 schools in the state. The survey results and photographs of each school have designated detailed condition of all schools. This has happened in projecting the requirement for repairs as well as additional space in each school based on the present building condition, plinth area and real enrolment.

On the basis of this all schools have been categorised into different categories. Each of these categories has been given a priority code. These codes are assigned depending on the requirement of each school. Civil works are being taken up based on these prioritisation. This ensures that more deserving schools are taken up first. In phase I of the programme all schools without buildings have been taken up for construction. Funds from the 11th Finance Commission grant and SSA

Leaping Ahead 16 Achievements Education in Assam 2001-2003 Power to Peoples’ Committees through School Improvement Grants

For effective decentralisation, the financial plans for utilisation of the amount to the reins must also be handed over to the VECs, or TGECs. The work may include people. Through Sankalpa Jatra, peoples’ preparation and repairing of school committees were trained and oriented on their signboard, teaching-learning materials, respective roles and responsibilities which desks and benches, decoration of included the distribution and monitoring of classroom for ‘K-Sreni’ etc. school grants given to all the Lower Primary, Upper Primary and Composite schools. The School Repairing Grant of Rs. 5,000 was also given to all these schools. To avail School Infrastructure Grant of Rs. 2,000 was this fund the SMC has to submit the action given to almost 40,000 schools. To avail plan to the GPEC. this fund, the SMC has to submit action

Infrastructure Grant distributed to GPEC by Chief Minister, Assam

have been earmarked to ensure that every school without a building will get a building in the next few months.

Following this, schools that require major renovation and where space is inadequate have been taken up. Building designs for schools have been developed incorporating inexpensive local materials and cost effective technologies are also being encouraged. These designs incorporate the requirements of physically challenged students also.

Through programmes of DPEP, SSA, 11th Finance Commission & PMGY, the primary school infrastructure has been greatly improved in the past two

Achievements Leaping Ahead 17 Education in Assam 2001-2003 years. All construction is carried out through People’s Committees viz.VECs or SMCs. There is complete transparency in the conduct of construction activity and the maintenance of accounts. External evaluations carried out recently by government of India have lauded the civil works programme under DPEP and SSA.

Construction activities in the Completed and under past 2 years construction

New school buildings 1483 Repair & renovation 3801 Additional classrooms 1088 Drinking water 1586 Toilet 1356

7. Integrated Education for Disabled (IED) Enrolment and support to disabled children is being provided by a scheme of Integrated Education.

Disabled children have been identified through house-to-house survey.

Survey for identification was conducted through Alokar Jatra.

District Core Committees (DCC) have been formed in all districts comprising educational functionaries, district administration, health, social welfare, NGO and disabled persons as members.

DIET/BTC faculty have been trained on multiple disability through a RCI Foundation Course. NGOs with experience in working with disabled children have been involved in implementation of IED activities at Block level in eight districts.

8. Initiatives for ‘Ka-Sreni’ In Assam every LP/MV School has a class called ‘Ka-Sreni’ which has children of 4-5 years of age. This has greatly helped in segregating the underaged children from Class-I. Now a concerted effort is being made to introduce an appropriate

Leaping Ahead 18 Achievements Education in Assam 2001-2003 curriculum and training for teachers on Early Childhood Education and school readiness.

Training is being imparted to one teacher from each school having four or more teachers to teach in Ka-sreni.

A Ka-sreni curriculum, workbook and TLM kit has been developed.

In about 3000 schools, Anganwadi workers (ICDS) have been inducted to 1 teach ‘Ka-sreni’ for 2 /2 hrs every day.

Convergence with Social Welfare Department for location of Anganwadi centres adjacent to school buildings has been worked out.

9. Quality improvement in school education 9.1 Teacher training More than 70,000 teachers were trained in a 7 day in-service programme throughout the state in 2003.

Training programme for Upper Primary school teacher has been planned from June, 2003.

Teachers have also been oriented as a part of SMC/VEC orientation programmes.

The one year in-service teacher training programme has been thoroughly revamped and a new curriculum and evaluation strategies have been implemented by SCERT with assistance from SSA.

9.2 Development of materials New textbooks for class III and IV have been developed for Assamese, Bodo and Bengali by SCERT. A separate project has been launched for development of textbooks for upper primary level. The work of development of textbooks for class V is in an advanced stage. A workbook has been developed for class I.

9.3 Pupil evaluation Now regular terminal evaluations are being held for all primary schools. The stress is on continuous evaluation of children and remedial teaching on a regular basis rather than the emphasis on an annual examination.

Achievements Leaping Ahead 19 Education in Assam 2001-2003 Learning Guarantee Initiative -‘Ashwas’

Stress is on learning by all children by fixing learning milestones, frequent evaluation and remedial teaching, sharing of children’s performance with parents, use of question banks and introducing accountability of the school & teachers to show improved performance of children.

A Reading Guarantee campaign is also being launched for ensuring enhanced reading ability of primary school children.

9.4 Academic support to schools The strategy of Block Resource Centres, Cluster Resource Centres and regular school visits for academic guidance has now been extended throughout the state.

Bidyajyoti A micro-intervention named “Bidyajyoti” (supported by UNICEF) has been initiated in 5 blocks of 5 districts to make a shift towards a demand driven, target oriented, learning guarantee based approach for learning enhancement. The number of schools under the programme are 457 in the blocks of Rampur (Kamrup), Titabor (Jorhat), Sipajhar (Darrang) and Udarbond (Cachar).

10. UEE Initiatives in Tea Garden Areas Around 43 per cent of the children in tea gardens in the age group of 6 –14 years are still out of school (against the State average of around 25 per cent). There are still around 15 per cent areas that are not served by any Lower Primary school, although the Garden Managements are legally bound to provide schooling facilities to the children of the plantation workers by the statutory provision of Assam Plantations Labour Rule Act, 1951.

In six districts of Assam, Tea Gardens have provincialised schools and these schools avail Meeting with Tea Garden Managers benefits of programmes given by the government

Leaping Ahead 20 Achievements Education in Assam 2001-2003 Initiatives taken in Tea-Garden Areas

Education Committees in the name of TGEC Department including Teacher Training. (Tea Garden Education Committee) have Initiatives have been taken to bridge the gap been formed in all the Tea Gardens in Assam between the home language and school with representatives from Labour Unions, language for children of plantation workers Student Associations. through development of special bridge Enrolment drives and bridge courses have materials and teacher training. been conducted in different tea garden Process of networking with allied Government areas in a big way. Now the Govt. is also agencies has been started and possible contemplating to support the Tea Garden convergence areas are being explored like Managed schools through provisions of orienting and involving the Labour Department additional para-teachers, building grant on functionaries in educational issues, utilising cost sharing basis through SSA. various infrastructure and manpower available The State Level Advisory Board under under Assam Tea Employees Welfare Board Assam Plantations Labour Rules has been in different locations. reconstituted and activated where issues Decision has been taken to cover the un- relating to education matters in Tea Garden served areas of the Tea Gardens by EGS areas are reviewed. centres. An Advisory Committee has been set up by Tea Associations like Assam Chah Majdoor the Education Department for monitoring Sangha (ACMS), Assam Tea Tribes Students matters relating to UEE in Tea and Ex-Tea Association (ATTSA) and other NGOs are areas. being involved. ATTSA and ACMS are acting The Tea Garden Cell under Education in the field at present to boost the enrolment Department has been revamped. The Cell is drive in Tea & Ex-Tea areas. now headed by a Joint Secretary level Officer. Now SSA has decided to get into agreements Provision of Mid-Day Meal has been extended with individual tea garden management on to Management-run Schools. About 49,000 the basis of sharing of cost for achieving children will benefit from this. UEE. As a part of this agreement, SSA would provide EGS centres, Para-teachers and also Provision of free textbooks has been share the cost for construction of additional extended to Management-run schools. classrooms. The tea garden managements Management-run schools have been brought need to ensure regular function of schools, under the regular academic supervision and provide cooked meal to children and space monitoring mechanism of Education for EGS centres.

Achievements Leaping Ahead 21 Education in Assam 2001-2003 including SSA. In the remaining districts of Assam, there are no provincialised schools. The Tea Garden Managed schools had not been covered earlier under any Government programme. However, the state government has identified tea garden areas as Special Focus Areas and taken several initiatives for such areas. 11. Making Elementary Education Free The state government has disallowed realisation of any kind of fees or charges in government/provincialised schools.

From the academic session 2003, all children studying in government/ provincialised and recognised schools in classes I to VII have been receiving free textbooks. An effort is also being made to provide free textbooks to venture schools. This year almost two crore books have been published for children at primary and upper primary levels. Children in bridge courses and alternative schools will also

Enrolment Drive in Tea Garden Area receive free textbooks.

Implementation of PMGY and Finance Commission Award

1331 additional classrooms are under construction and another 1000 are being take up for construction.

400 new school buildings have been taken up for construction in building-less schools.

Leaping Ahead 22 Achievements Education in Assam 2001-2003 Major Activities to be conducted in next 3-4 Months

Approximately 5,000 ‘Amar Parhashali’ children of class - I & II are able to read schools will be set up in school-less with comprehension. habitations under EGS scheme. Extending support to Ka-sreni students Para-teachers will be recruited by SMCs through training of one teacher and in single teacher schools which are in Anganwadi workers. remote areas like tea garden areas, char, tribal, forest and international Conduct of awareness and assessment border areas. camps for Disabled Children.

Additional teachers will also be Coverage of all Primary schools with provided in tea garden managed drinking water facilities under schools where there is high enrolment ‘Swajaldhara’ scheme. provided that tea garden management provide support like building etc. Launching of Long Term and Residential Bridge Course for older and hardest to A major strategy of regular student reach group children. evaluation and external examination is being launched with effect from May Provision of additional para-teachers to the 2003. Management-run school(s) wherever and whenever required as per norms. Special Operationalisation of peoples training programme for teachers of the committee viz. Village Education Garden schools. Teachers’ Handbook has Committee, Tea Garden Education been developed to bridge the gap between Committee, Gaon Panchayat Education home language and school language of Committee by ensuring holding regular the children. Teachers will be oriented on meetings and effective utilisation of this package during special training School Grant. programme. A training package on leadership and motivation enhancement Conduct Mass Teachers’ Training for will be conducted for the youth of tea and Maths, Science & English teachers of ex-tea tribes. Upper Primary Schools. Special initiatives for migrating children— Launching Reading Guarantee Mobile schools or seasonal tasks are Programme for ensuring that all being planned in selected locations.

Achievements Leaping Ahead 23 Education in Assam 2001-2003 SecondarSecondaryy EducationEducation

The process of rationalisation of teachers by considering the pupil-teacher ratio has been taken up.

Training for Bharat Scouts and Guides has been made compulsory for all secondary school students.

The UNICEF assisted project for Anaemia control among adolescent girls in the Districts of Kamrup and Barpeta has been revived.

Under the scheme of “ Improvement of Science Education”, 1520 schools of 10 districts have been covered. During 2003-04 another 2957 schools of 8 Districts i.e. Bongaigaon, Nalbari, Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Jorhat, Nagaon, Dibrugarh and Dhemaji districts will be included. Under this scheme, scientific equipments, library books and furniture are to be provided to high and higher secondary schools.

District training centres for Computer education for Secondary schools students are being set up under the 11th Finance Commission Award in each of the 23 Districts. Training will be provided to students of class VIII to XII.

Despite the difficult financial situation arrear salaries and cash payment for pay revision arrear to retired and deceased employees of Secondary schools has been released.

Leaping Ahead 24 Achievements Education in Assam 2001-2003 HigherHigher EducationEducation

An amount of Rs. 30 lakhs has been paid to teaching staff of Universities and Colleges as arrear pay due under the revised UGC pay scale from January 1996. Arrear pay of Rs. 2.68 crores from 1986 to 1995 was also paid. In addition, Rs. 2 crores has been paid as gratuity to retired employees of deficit colleges.

A large number of posts of teaching and non-teaching staff have been normalised i.e. shifted from plan to non-plan head.

The Government is considering introduction of some vocational and job oriented subjects in colleges including modern biology, electronics devices, bio-dynamic agriculture, computer, bio-physics, microbiology and sericulture in a phased manner. Vocational subjects have been introduced in 14 non-government colleges.

Achievements Leaping Ahead 25 Education in Assam 2001-2003 TTechnicalechnical EducationEducation

The Electronic laboratory at Assam Engineering College is being developed with the assistance received from All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Grant has been received from AICTE for development of Computer Application Department, Electronic Engineering Department and Computer Engineering Department at Jorhat Engineering College. The Assam Engineering College has received grant of Rs. 3 lakhs for development of a computer centre for Computer Science Engineering courses.

A Training centre has been set up at the Assam Engineering Institute for persons with disability. This is the only such centre in the entire North-East region. The objective of the programme is to train and educate people with physical disabilities in technical profession.

Guwahati University permitted Ph.D./Research work in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering at Assam Engineering College.

With the approval of Department of Electronics, Government of India, “A” level course of DOEACC (Department of Electronics Approved Computer Courses) has been started at Assam Engineering Institute at Guwahati since September, 2002.

Leaping Ahead 26 Achievements Education in Assam 2001-2003 ArchaeologyArchaeology

Archaeological exploration was conducted at Jakhlabanda in Nagaon District and Biswanathghat in Sonitpur District.

Conservation of archaeological sites and monuments has been taken up at Maina village in Karimganj District, Pingaleswar Devalaya in Kamrup District, Gardkhiya DOL in Sibsagar District. In addition, archaeological exploration has been carried out at Dubarani in Golaghat District.

MuseumsMuseums

The galleries of the Old State Museum buildings were redecorated with scientific lighting and proper display technique. Full fire detection and protection measures was taken in the Ethnography gallery of the Assam State Museum for the safety of the cultural objects and human lives. Steps have also been taken for the development of proposed Natural History gallery.

Achievements Leaping Ahead 27 Education in Assam 2001-2003 LibrarLibraryy SerServicesvices

Construction of 5 District library buildings i.e. Barpeta, Karimganj, Tinsukia, Morigaon and Bongaigaon is almost complete. Construction of library buildings for North Lakhimpur, Goalpara, Bongaigaon and the annexe building at District Library, Guwahati is under progress. Orientation programmes have been organised for rural librarians during 2002-03.

HistoricalHistorical andand AntiquarianAntiquarian StudiesStudies

A large number of books and manuscripts have been added to the collection of library in the past two years.

The preservation unit has undertaken preservation of a large number of old and rare documents.

Leaping Ahead 28 Achievements Education in Assam 2001-2003 Achievements at a Glance