Assam’s Education Minister said that the State government has decided to reopen its schools and colleges “informally” as an experiment for 15 days in September after engaging the teachers and staff for an equal number of days in sanitising and reorganising the classrooms according to social distancing norms.
Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said schools and colleges will reopen from September 1 but only the teachers and non-teaching staff would have to be present for the first half of the month.
“The job of the teachers and staff for the first 15 days of September would be to ensure proper sanitisation of the school and reorganising the classrooms in adherence to the COVID-19 protocol. Students can go to their institutions for informal classes for the next 15 days, and this will be as an experiment,” the Minister said.
The ‘informal’ strategy would require a teacher to provide study material and questions to each student who comes for midday meal twice a week. The answer scripts would be collected in the following week for on-the-spot assessment and tutoring to clear doubts.
“Midday meal is for students up to Class 8. So students of Classes 9-11 need not come to school but teachers will have to take online classes for them as well as the others from school. In the case of Class 12 and degree final year classes, informal classes are to be held for a limited number of students in four-five groups,” Dr. Sarma said.
Educational institutions that have been designated as quarantine or isolation centres have been exempted from this informal experiment. The administrative head of a district, however, can attach teachers of such institutions to other schools or colleges.
“If any student or teacher tests COVID-19 positive during this period, the school or college concerned will be closed,” Dr. Sarma said, adding private schools would have to take a call on reopening while maintaining social distancing within the campus and classrooms.
Cash prizes
The Assam government has been providing computers and laptops to meritorious students under the Anundoram Borooah Award Scheme since 2005. This year marks the shift to cash award credited into each student’s bank account.
Chinese parts are among the factors why students who secured top marks in their Class 10 exams will receive ₹20,000 each instead of a laptop, the Education Minister said.
“A total of 16,944 Class 10 students secured star (80% or more) marks in the State board exams this time. We have sanctioned about ₹34 crore for transferring ₹20,000 to each student’s account formally by the Chief Minister on September 12 or 13,” Dr. Sarma said.
“Difficulty in sourcing the computers is one of the reasons we have decided to go for direct benefit transfer. Many students were earlier not happy with the computer or laptop since they were not pre-loaded with software and they had preference for other brands. There is the issue of Chinese parts too,” he said.
Providing cash for the students to buy a gadget of their own choice made better sense, he added.
Sop for prayer halls
The Minister said the State government has started a process of providing ₹2.5 lakh each to about 8,000 namghars — community prayer halls conceptualised by medieval saint-reformer Srimanta Sankaradeva.
“We have earmarked a separate financial package of ₹10 lakh each for 377 temples, mosques, churches and other religious institutions. But this scheme is for the namghars that are secular in character. The preference is for those that are at least 100 years old and are managed by Schedule Caste people,” he said.
The first phase of the scheme covers 55 namghars in each of Assam’s 126 Assembly constituencies to be identified by the local authorities. The move is to promote places of historical and religious importance.
