The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in Assam has decided to shut down 34 state-run schools after none of their students passed this year’s High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) or Class X board exams.
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Seven of these schools are from Karbi Anglong district, 5 each from Jorhat and Cachar, 2 each from Dhubri, Goalpara, Lakhimpur, Nagaon and 1 each from Golaghat, Kamrup, Kokrajhar, Nalbari, Hailakandi, West Karbi Anglong Chirang, Darrang and Dibrugarh districts.
Over 500 students from these schools had appeared from this year’s HSLC exams conducted by the Board of Secondary Education Assam (SEBA).
According to a state secondary education department official, the closed schools will be merged with other government schools located nearby and teachers and students will be accommodated in them.
In June this year, the state secondary education department had issued show cause notice to 102 schools for poor results in Class X exams. Apart from those with zero success, the list included those with pass percentage below 10%. In the same month, the state government had announced plans to shut down nearly 800 state-run schools which have less than 30 students each.
This year, the pass percentage had dropped to 56.49% from 93.10% in 2021 when exams were not held due to COVID and results were declared based on performances by students in past exams and internal assessments.
The decision to close schools drew sharp a reaction from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). “Closing schools is not the solution. We just need to open many new schools all over the country. Instead of closing the school, improve the school and make education right,” Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal tweeted.