In a significant move, Assam education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma here on Sunday announced that no one from any political background, starting from panchayat to Lok Sabha, could be the chairman of the governing council of any higher secondary schools, madrasas and colleges.
In an obvious attempt to keep politicians away from school education, Mr Sarma told reporters, “We have sent the detailed guideline to all the schools and directed to form the governing council by July end.” There are 4,000 higher secondary schools and colleges that will come under purview of this decision.
Informing that he intends to start recruitment on vacant posts of the higher security schools and colleges, Mr Sarma said that his department has went into all aspects of it formulated detailed policy on formation of a governing councils.
Admitting that idea is to improve the quality of education in government schools, Mr Sarma said that they have already published the first list of TET passed teachers recruitment. Mr Sarma said that there were some complaints about the selection list on social media. “We have made arrangement redress of grievances of all those students. They can lodge complaints online,” he said.
This has come close on the heels of Assam government announcing free education for students with family income less than 'one lakh per annum who are taking admissions in higher secondary, three-year degree and polytechnic diploma courses from this year.
It is significant that Assam is the first state in India to make higher education free for poor students. There will be absolutely no fee for those students whose parents’ income is less than Rs 1 lakh a year.
