Guwahati, July 16: The Assam government has amalgamated around 1,900 lower primary (LP), middle english (ME) and high schools located on the same campus in a bid to bring them under single administrative control.

In an LP school, students are taught from classes I to V, in ME schools, from classes VI to VIII, and in a high school, classes IX and X.

"Around 1,900 schools have been amalgamated," education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said today.

A senior official of the education department told The Telegraph that it had observed that though schools were operating from the same campus, they did not have much coordination.

"The ME schools would blame their poor performance on the LP schools saying the students who had passed out of the LP schools and had taken admission in their schools were below standard. Similarly, the high school would pass on the blame to the ME schools," he said.

He said after amalgamation of classes I to X under one administrative control, there will be no scope of skirting responsibility. "The order for amalgamation has been issued for 1,200 schools and the rest will be done within this month," the official said. "Besides, we will link the LP and ME schools with the nearby high schools. Another 2,000 schools will be covered under the system."

Sarma said 1,500 girls' schools will be converted into co-educational ones. "The schools told us that the number of students has fallen over the years. That prompted our decision."