The education minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that they would provide free admissions to universities, colleges and higher secondary schools in Assam during the academic year 2020-21 to ensure there is no additional burden on parents during the lockdown. He assured there will be no hidden costs.

Addressing the media, Sarma said, “Students from the higher secondary to the postgraduate level, including medical, engineering and polytechnic students, will be given free admissions for the current academic year in Assam.” The prospectus and admission forms will be available online for free too.

He added that the education department will also pay Rs 1,000 as monthly mess dues for hoteliers and an additional Rs 1,000 to all students to buy books. “All students must mention their bank account details in their admission forms so that there is no delay in depositing money in their accounts,” he said. Students who passed the class 10 exams last year will be provided with computers at their school and those who have cleared the test this year will get Rs 20,000 so that they can buy computers of their choice, said the minister adding that the performance of government schools in this year’s Class 10 board exams was better than the last year’s.

The government will also provide the benefits of regular pay scale to 29,701 teachers under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), 11,206 contractual state pool teachers and 5,243 high school contractual teachers at par with educators in government schools. “These teachers will also get regular pay-scale, leave and medical benefits and other facilities like the regular government teachers,” he said.

The state government has brought a Bill seeking to restrict inter-district transfer of teachers for 12 years too. However, transfers within the district will be allowed. Another Bill was brought seeking to make Assamese a compulsory subject from Class 1 to 10 in all schools in the state. Both the bills are pending for the governor’s assent, said Sarma.

Source: Hindustan Times

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