Conundrum in Assam’s academic sphere

Jyoti Prasad Chaliha

It is axiomatic that education is the foundation of all development and investment in education is the best investment. Our ambitious or overambitious Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Bishwa Sarma is dreaming of making Assam one of the five best-developed states in the country. In the same breath, our Prime Minister is dreaming of making India a five trillion dollar economy.

But how? Can we achieve these goals without prioritizing our education policy in the agenda of planning? The aim of this write-up is not to discuss these aspects. This reference has been made only to highlight that in any agenda of action for the development of our state or the country, academic issues should get dominant priority and importance.  

To say is one thing and to implement is quite another. During the last 15 years or so our present Chief Minister was the Education Minister of the state. During this period, the academic scenario in the state has been in a state of flux and we are in search of a policy to settle down our education policy which alone will show the trajectory of evolution and growth of our academic strategy and planning to make our academic system efficient and effective in the global context if we are really serious to make our Assam one of the best states in the country.

It is really unfortunate that we are still in a state of uncertainty regarding the shape of our academic policy although we have formulated our New Education Policy (NEP), which defined and outlined clearly the academic planning process covering the entire gamut of the academic world.

It is no business of mine here to discuss in detail the NEP. The main concern of this write-up is to outline the current academic issues beleaguering Assam in relation to the NEP to the extent that it has been hitting the newspaper headlines almost every day or has been a ubiquitous topic of talk shows on the television channels every evening.

The outstanding features of the NEP has been the medium of instruction at the lower level of teaching up to the Higher Secondary level in four ranges of 5 3 3 4 years. The NEP has focused on teaching at the lower level in the mother tongue of the students. In spite of this clear-cut policy, we in Assam have stirred up the unnecessary controversy of teaching science subjects in English with the presumption that students will be more at home if science subjects are imparted in English and it would facilitate and make it easier for the students to master these subjects later at higher level. But what pragmatic and scientific basis this has is quite unknown when we have eminent doctors, engineers, and scientists who learned in their mother tongue.

The English medium schools are of recent origin and are too expensive and not accessible for poor students. The present focus and thrust on teaching science subjects through English medium at the lower level by the Government of Assam will at first deprive a large swathe of poor students of Assam of educational opportunities. Besides such a policy would lead to the closure of a number of Assamese medium schools and there will be a spurt in the emergence of English medium schools which is not desirable.

Further, when our political mandarins in the corridor of power in New Delhi had been waxing eloquent on teaching medical science and engineering in colleges and universities through the mother tongues of the students, the policy of our mandarins in the corridor of power in Dispur to teach science subjects at lower rung through English is absolutely ridiculous and in sharp contrast with the policy of New Delhi and also contrary to the policy of the NEP.

Another outstanding feature of the NEP is the emphasis on the spread of quality education and accessibility of all students to education to the extent of making 50 % enrollment of students in higher educational institutions and making education inclusive.

But the present policy of the Assam Government will lead to the closure of government-run schools and replacing them with private English medium schools making education a pipe dream for a large swathe of poor students the size of which can be determined by the Union Government’s own claim that 80 crore of people of the country’s 130 crore of people depend on free ration supplied by the Government.

Proper training of teachers, development of Government-run schools with proper infrastructure and paraphernalia, provision of games and sports, improvement of hygienic environment et al are some of the ways to improve the quality of education on the school stage in conformity with the guidelines laid down in NEP and not by closing down of schools and encouraging private English-medium schools.

If need be, our Governments must allocate sufficient funds under education head at least by 6% of the GDP if Government is really serious about the all-round development of the country benefitting all sections of people.  

Jyoti Prasad Chaliha is an educationist and former member of the Assam Human Rights Commission (AHRC). He can be reached at: jyotiprasad11@rediffmail.com