All state-run schools to be co-educational

GUWAHATI:  All state-run schools in Assam will soon be made co-educational institutes. The idea is to promote gender equality and ensure that girls find a school at their doorsteps. “From now on, there won’t be any boys or girls-specific government schools in Assam. We are doing this to promote gender equality,” Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday. He left it to the heritage girls’ schools to decide whether to join this system or not.

He highlighted the hardship being faced by girls due to the lack of co-ed schools. “As girls do not get admission in boys’ schools in Guwahati, a lot of them are forced to travel a long distance to study in a girls’ school,” the CM said.

The state government also decided to introduce dual medium of instruction (English and Assamese) for classes 6-12 in the state-run schools. “To begin with, we want to have 10 such schools in every district,” Sarma said, adding that maths and science classes will be held in English from Class 3 in all state-run schools.