Seeking education

Guwahati, July 14: More than one lakh out-of-school children in Assam are yet to be covered under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told the Assembly today. He was replying to a question by All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) MLA Sirajuddin Ajmal.

“According to the district information system for education (Dise) 2010-2011, altogether 1,24,577 out-of-school children are yet to be covered under SSA as on March 31, 2011,” Sarma said.

Dise, which is a key database on information about schools, enrolment, teachers and other school-related data, is compiled at the state level and then sent to the Union ministry of human resource development.

According to the district-wise list of out-of-school children in the state for 2010-11, Sonitpur is at the top with 14,892 such children followed by Dhemaji and Nagaon with 14,272 and 13,264 children respectively. Jorhat, Bongaigaon and Dima Hasao districts fare better than other districts with 732, 1,295 and 1,659 out-of-school children respectively.

Sarma said from 2008 to June this year, Assam had received Rs 80,670.89 lakh as central grant for the SSA and added that for the academic session 2011, altogether 3,56,71,366 free textbooks in 17 mediums and languages had been printed and distributed among 64,62,447 students.

Responding to another question from AIUDF MLA Majibur Rahman, Sarma said there were 7,691 single-teacher lower primary schools in the state. He also furnished the district-wise list of vacancies in the posts of upper primary and lower primary schoolteachers as on May 31, 2011, in reply to a question by Hafiz Bashir Ahmed of the AIUDF.

According to the list, a total of 7,800 posts of lower primary schoolteachers and 4,499 posts of upper primary schoolteachers are lying vacant in the state.