GUWAHATI: The Assam government has announced its decision to provincialise 422 schools run by the tea garden authorities in the state. Following the move, the schools will be eligible to receive mid-day meals, uniforms, and free textbooks.
The decision comes in the wake of the state cabinet’s move to provincialise 419 tea garden-managed lower primary schools, two moral education schools and one High School in the state.
Previously, these schools were being run by the State Tea Garden authorities.
A notification to that effect, issued from the Department of School, Assam, dated April 18, said "In the public interest and in the academic interest of the tea garden community, the state government provincialised 419 number Tea gardens to be managed in Lower Primary Schools, 2 tea gardens in M E Schools and 1 tea garden in High School of the state."
The concerned authorities have also been directed by the state government to create vacancies of teachers for the schools, with 2 teachers to be appointed for each of the 419 L P schools. Similarly, 3 teachers have been ordered to be appointed for each of the 2 ME schools and one headmaster and 5 teachers are to be appointed for the one high school in tea gardens.
Further, the notification said "The students in the provincialised schools will receive Mid Day Meal (MDM), uniform, free textbooks and government teachers." These facilities are provided to all state- run schools in the state and upon provincialisation, the tea garden schools will also become eligible for the benefits.
The District Elementary Education Officers and Inspector of schools have also been directed by the state government to ensure the proper working relationships between the newly recruited teachers and teachers engaged by the tea gardens.
Those teachers managed by the tea garden authorities will also be provided with several facilities which include in-house training of teachers and benefits of capacity building programmes organised by the Department of School Education for teachers, the notification said.
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