It is for the first time in 75 years of India’s independence that high schools will start functioning in Assam’s tea estates. A total of 97 high schools will start their academic session on 10 May, while 22 more will become functional next year
Representative photo. PTI
In the 2017-18 state budget, the Assam government had proposed to set up 200 tea garden schools, including 119 high schools, of which 97 will start this session.
According to The Hindu, the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Assam government had in 2020 established the State-Owned Priority Development fund to set up 119 model high schools in strategically-located tea estates.
The State PWD was entrusted with constructing these schools at Rs 1.19-crore each, a total cost of Rs 142.50 crore.
The remaining 22 schools are in different stages of construction and are expected to become functional by the next academic session.
As the academic session for the 97 schools starts on 10 May, let’s take a look why it is being considered a historic decision:
High schools in Assam’s tea gardens for the first time
It is for the first time in 75 years of India’s independence that high schools will start functioning in Assam’s tea estates.
According to The Indian Express, workers in Assam’s tea gardens are mostly Adivasis from the Chota Nagpur plateau region, who were brought to the state by the British as indentured labourers in the 19th Century.
Even though they are considered a crucial vote bank, the ‘Tea Tribes’ have led isolated, marginalised lives in the gardens for generations.
According to the Plantation Labour Act of 1951, it is the responsibility of the management of the tea gardens to provide lower primary education (classes 1-5) to children between 6 and 12 years of age.
However, education of the workers’ children has rarely been a priority of the management. Due to poor infrastructure and lack of facilities, a lot of students have continued to drop out as literacy rates remained low in the tea garden youth.
According to The Indian Express, which cites a report by the Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (ASCPCR), at least 80 per cent of tea gardens in Assam were flouting the Right To Education Act, and illegally employing children in the gardens.
Without any high schools in their area, the children of tea garden workers were forced to go far from home, and in many cases, through dense forests, to attend one. Presented with such options, most would drop out.
Last month, the chief minister said that the government is planning to provide breakfast apart from midday meals to students of these schools.
The state government is going to set up another 81 model high schools in tea garden areas and these will be upgraded to higher secondary levels, he added.
He said that teachers are being appointed in these schools in two categories — one set of teachers are recruited specifically for these schools, and another set comprises those who are transferred to these schools from already provincialised schools.
The state government intends to develop this as a successful model for the rest of the country to follow, Sarma said.
With inputs from agencies
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