A CORRESPONDENT
LAKHIMPUR: Thousands of teachers and employees working in the non-provincialized Higher Secondary Schools of the State have expressed resentment over the fact that only 9 out of 114 such schools have been enlisted by the government for provincialization, as declared by State Education Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma on August 1.
Aggrieved at this decision taken by the government, the teachers of the non-provincialized HS Schools under Lakhimpur district, who have been in service for 25-30 years without drawing any salary, demanded the intervention of the Education Minister regarding the issue and called upon him to resolve the problem. The teachers concerned raised the demand after a resolution was adopted in an urgent meeting held at Pahumara HS School on Monday.
Notably, these teachers of the 105 HS Schools have lost all hope after their schools were deprived of provincialization despite fulfilling all criteria to be provincialized. In the meeting, the deprived teachers alleged that their schools were deprived of provincialization on the ground of 'academic permission' to be issued to them from the Assam Higher Secondary Education Council (AHSEC) which was asked by the High-level Empowerment Committee while screening the schools concerned.
The teachers termed the seeking of the permission by the Empowerment Committee as self-contradictory and stated that 'the AHSEC accords such permission after the subject teachers are duly appointed by the competent authority'. According to the teachers in the meeting, this was informed to the schools by AHSEC when they had sought the permission.
The teachers asserted that the District and State-level Expert Committees submitted the list of 114 non-provincialized HS Schools, which fulfilled the NCERT and NCTE criteria as per the Assam Education (Provincialization of Teachers and Reorganization of Educational Institutions) Act, 2017 and 2018, to the Finance Department selecting them to be eligible for provincialization. While selecting, the schools which were accorded government recognition before January 1, 2006, were brought under consideration. For getting the selection, these schools had to face a strict screening programme and field visit by magistrate too. Then the government declared these 114 HS Schools eligible for provincialization out of hundreds of schools. The remaining schools were declared non-eligible for not fulfilling the NCERT and NCTE criteria. The teachers concerned are extremely confused and have demanded the Education Minister to resolve their problem.
Also watch: #NewsMakers: Being LGBTQ+ A Curse?