Midday meal cooks as teachers, three classes in one room: Why Assam may shut down 2,500 schools

The Assam Government recently faced criticism across the nation when it decided to shut down 34 government run schools as not a single student from these schools could pass this year’s High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) or Class X board exams. These schools also had been showing a steady decline in the number of enrolment of students.

Immediately after the decision was announced, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took a dig at Assam government saying that shutting down schools is not a solution. “Instead of shutting down schools, improve the quality of education in schools,” tweeted Kejriwal. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, however, dismissed this criticism and claimed that 8,610 new government schools have been set up in the state since 2013.

Meanwhile, state education minister Dr Ranoj Pegu clarified that the 34 schools would not be shut down but will be merged with other government schools located nearby, and teachers and students will be accommodated in those schools. He further added that schools are not being shut just because of their abysmal performance but also because their enrolment rate has been dropping fast.  In fact, the state government has been doing a scrutiny of nearly 2,500 schools showing poor performance and low enrolment. These schools may also eventually be merged with other schools nearby. After a thorough scrutiny, the merger notice will be issued to these schools and then closure will be done phase-wise.

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According to Pegu, the Shiksha Khetra scheme, run by Assam government under the Right to Education Act, stipulates that there should be minimum one school in a radius of 1 km and then one ME school in a radius of 3 km and at least one high school in a radius of 5 km. Many schools which are facing shut down are located within a distance of 100-200 metres of better performing schools. “We have a large number of schools where the enrolment is not sustainable. We are rationalizing the number of educational institutions. Schools are being either merged or amalgamated if they are of the same level,” Pegu told India Today NE.

As per the 2020-21 report of Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE), Assam has 46,749 government schools of which 3,559 have classes till 10^th standard. While Assam’s enrolment record is better than national average (see table), it registered the highest dropout rate in the country at secondary level (9-10 standards) in 2020-21—31 per cent as against the national average of 14.6 per cent. Apart from the 34 schools showing zero pass percentage, it was less than 10 per cent in 68 other schools.

Gross enrolment ratio

	Primary (1-5)	Upper Primary (6-8)	Elementary (1-8)	Secondary (9-10)	Higher Secondary (11-12)
India	106.7	95.8	102.7	78.6	45.2
Assam	127.3	103.8	117.8	89.6	45.1

Source: UDISE+ In 2020-21

Dropout rate

	Primary (1-5)	Upper Primary (6-8)	Secondary (9-10)
India	0.8	1.9	14.6
Assam	3.3	4.6	31

Source: UDISE+ In 2020-21

Interestingly, Sarma—now as chief minister and earlier during his tenure as education minister—had issued several warnings to schools which had been showing consistently poor performance in board examinations and asked them to improve performance or face closure. This is for the first time the state government has initiated action. “This action is also meant to be a warning for all the teachers that they cannot take government warnings for granted. I hope this will send the right message and all schools, which are performing below par, will get their acts right and help students to do well. We all need to contribute towards creating better human resources for the state and the nation,” Chief Minister Sarma told India Today NE.

Out of 34 schools, seven are from Karbi Anglong district, five each from Jorhat and Cachar, two each from Dhubri, Goalpara, Lakhimpur, and Nagaon and one each from Golaghat, Kamrup, Kokrajhar, Nalbari, Hailakandi, West Karbi Anglong, Chirang, Darrang, and Dibrugarh districts.

Of the 2,500 schools under scanner, 15 lower primary and upper primary schools are in the capital city Guwahati. India Today NE team visited two of these 15 schools—Machkhowa Majidia LP school and Katakipara LP School. In Machkhowa Majidia LP school, there are three students for 40 students. In Katakipara LP School, India Today NE found one teacher teaching 30 students. But in the government proposal for merger and amalgamation, Katakipara LP School’s record shows zero enrolment.

The ground visit also exposed poor state of infrastructure in the state. For instance, in Machkhowa Majidia LP school, students of two-three classes were studying in the same room with no partition. Of the three teachers, head teacher Basanti Haloi, by her own admission, is only matric pass while the other two teachers are graduates.

The situation is worse in Katakipara LP school where midday meal cooks, at times, double up as a teacher. “There is only one teacher. If there is any official duty or election duty, we are forced to request the midday meal cooks, who are 7-8^th pass only, to teach the students,” says Punor Chandra Boro, president of the school’s managing committee.

The scenarios are same across the state. For instance, another zero-pass school Vidyadhar Sharma Memorial High School, set up in 1954 in Jorhat, currently has seven students and three teachers. In April this year, the government transferred nine teachers from this school to other schools in the same district.

Some teachers allege that the decision to suddenly order closure of schools is unfair as the government hardly provide any help to improve the performances of these schools. “We have a total of 55 students with seven teachers. The government has not provided any opportunities to our school. We are running the school on our own and the donations. And it is the only Hindi high school in the entire Gauripur area from 1984. I don't think it’s a fair way to decide a school’s fate based on one year’s result,” Vivekanda Pande, the head teacher of Mohanlal Sovasaria School in Dhubri told India Today NE.