Assam schools in rural and ‘char’ areas struggle with vacancies, basic facilities

Nearly 1,400 government-run primary and mid-level schools in Assam’s ‘char’ and rural areas currently lack drinking water and toilet facilities, the state assembly was informed on Thursday. The disclosure came during a reply by education minister Ranoj Pegu to a query by Congress MLA Wajed Ali Choudhury.

Minister Pegu revealed that out of these 1,391 schools, 347 have no drinking water, 809 lack toilets, while in addition, 134 schools have non-functional water facilities and 101 schools have non-functional toilets. The departments concerned are reportedly working to address these deficiencies.

The assembly was also informed of a severe shortage of teachers in these schools. A total of 27,936 teaching posts remain vacant across all government schools in ‘char’ and rural areas:

• Middle English (ME) schools: 12,382 posts vacant

• Lower Primary (LP) schools: 8,251 posts vacant

• Upper Primary (UP) schools: 7,303 posts vacant

Recruitment is underway to fill some of these gaps. For instance, the 4,500 LP posts in general areas are in the process of document verification, and the Secondary Education Directorate has completed recruitment exercises to appoint 9,717 teachers across the state.

The data highlights the pressing challenges faced by schools in Assam’s remote areas, where inadequate infrastructure and teacher shortages threaten the quality of education for thousands of students.

With PTI inputs