The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Students’ Federation of India have slammed the Assam government’s decision to shut down 17 schools that recorded zero pass percentage in this year’s Class X exams announced on June 6.
A total of 3,42,224 students had appeared for the exams, 2,21,756 of whom had cleared it. A total of 6,513 students did not turn up for the exams while 161 were expelled for cheating.
“A total of 17 schools have zero pass percentage this year. So, the government has decided to close down the schools,” Assam Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said on Sunday. He added that the teachers of these schools will be transferred to other schools across the State within 72 hours and students allowed to take admissions in the nearest government school.
“Instead of focussing on improving the infrastructure of such schools and posting adequate teachers, such a move will affect the already-weakened school education system in Assam,” said CPI(M)’s State secretary Deben Bhattacharya.
He added that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in Assam had in 2018 closed down 217 schools for lack of students while 2,600 others were merged with neighbouring schools.
“The decision to regularise some 46,000 teachers appointed through teacher eligibility test (TET) is appreciable. But there are some 40,000 more TET-passed people who are yet to be appointed. Moreover, 22,000 teachers are affected as their venture schools are yet to be provincialised,” SFI’s general secretary Nirankush Nath said.
Venture educational institutions are set up by local communities and many of them have been recognised by the State government. Only the recognised institutions are considered for provincialisation, or absorption by the government.
More than 8,490 venture schools were provincialised under the Assam Venture Educational Institutions (Provincialisation of Services) Act, 2011, till the law was declared constitutionally invalid by Gauhati High Court in September 2016.
Hundreds of such institutions are still awaiting provincialisation and teachers have been demanding this from time to time.