Guwahati, July 29: Raijor Dal president and Sibsagar MLA Akhil Gogoi has expressed reservations against the Assam Cabinet’s decision to introduce dual medium of instruction from Classes VI to XII in Assamese and vernacular medium government schools needed to be debated and discussed among all stakeholders.
Speaking to mediapersons, Gogoi said that the matter “cannot be confined to the Cabinet alone and has to be discussed by all stakeholders.”
The state Cabinet, during its meeting on Thursday evening, decided that the school authority would be at liberty to introduce English medium without abolishing Assamese or vernacular mediums of instruction.
“Five to ten schools in each district shall be identified for introducing dual medium of instruction and the number of such schools shall be increased gradually depending on the outcome of the move,” state education minister Ranoj Pegu informed.
“From the academic year 2023, Mathematics and Science will be taught in English from Class III in all government and provincialised Assamese and other vernacular medium schools, and accordingly, the books will be in English,” the minister said after the Cabinet meeting
“Besides, Geography and History will replace Social Studies as compulsory subjects in the school curriculum,” Pegu announced.
Reacting to the decisions, the Raijor Dal president said that academicians and students’ unions have to be consulted before such significant decisions in the sphere of education are taken.
The Sibsagar MLA further said a public debate was needed in regard to the education minister’s recent announcement that venture schools, which did not fall under the purview of the school provincialisation Act, would not be provincialised any more.
“Besides, it is a matter of concern that under the incumbent government, several educational institutions have been either closed down or merged/amalgamated. The student-teacher ratio too needed corrective action,” Gogoi said.