GUWAHATI: On Wednesday, the Assam’s Education Minister, Ranoj Pegu, stated on Wednesday that all high schools in the state will be upgraded to higher secondary schools by 2022.
The Education Minister announced a special event organized by the education department at the Public Works Department’s Training Centre.
Rajon Pegu honours teachers receiving National and State Awards
Additionally, Education Minister Ranoj Pegu honoured the teachers who had received National and State awards for their outstanding service at the event.
Also, the Education Minister said, “The awards have been given to some selected teachers for their excellent service. The committee that was set up in Teachers’ Day shall remain till 2022 and it will evaluate the performances of all the teachers.”
He emphasized training sessions
Meanwhile, Ranoj Pegu further stated that he wants teachers to participate fully in the training sessions that would be provided to them to improve their skills.
Special schemes will be established by the state to popularise science in the academic field. Science teachers will be trained using new technology, according to the Education Minister.
“Education will be restructured under education policy,” he added.
Re-opening of schools and colleges
Minister Ranoj Pegu emphasised that the real test of Assam’s school reopening will begin on Monday, with almost four lakh class X students expected to return to campus.
The classrooms have been completely sanitized, and seating arrangements have been set by Covid guidelines. The state government remains in an experimental phase.
According to an official source from the Education Department stated, “The government does not want to take a risk with the health of the students even if the Covid positivity rate has been below 1% in Assam. Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has been apprised of the decision of various state governments and their school reopening status. It’s now solely on him to decide about reopening the rest of the classes.”
Physical sessions for class XII and degree final years in schools and colleges in the state reopened on September 6 after a four-month break. However, on the first day of school in Guwahati, less than half of the students were there.
Kamrup (Metro) inspector of schools, Prasanna Bora, said, “Attendance in class XII in many schools in greater Guwahati is still less than 60%. For class X too, we are not expecting more than 60% students on the first day.”
Due to the loss of offline sessions, the Board of Secondary Education Assam (Seba) has already cut 40 per cent of the course curriculum from the class X state board test syllabus. Though this is welcome news for students, Seba authorities have stated that no compromises will be made with internal assessments, which will be used to evaluate students if the pandemic disrupts the 2022 board exam.
“Classes, whether online or offline, are going to be very important for all examinees. Earlier, the internal assessment marks were not properly documented. But now, Seba is keeping the records of all students who would be appearing in next year’s class X boards. We have already documented the marks of the first internal evaluation (unit test),” said Seba controller of examinations, Nayan Jyoti Sarmah.
For class X students, there will be four internal assessments: a half-yearly examination in late October, a second unit test in December, and a pre-board exam in February, he said.
The reopening of physical classes in class X at both government and private high schools, high madrassas, residential schools, and day boarding schools is allowed until the positive rate in the respective districts is below 2%, according to the current SOP released by the state education department.
