AT Photo: State Education Minister Ranoj Pegu
Guwahati, Sept. 13: The Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and members of the newly formed Assam State School Education Board (ASSEB) were sworn in during an oath taking ceremony on Friday, in the presence of state education minister, Ranoj Pegu at Secondary Education Board of Assam (SEBA) office in Guwahati.
Ramesh Chand Jain, former Chairman of the Secondary Education Board of Assam (SEBA), has sworn in as the Chairman of the ASSEB while Rukma Gohain Barua has sworn as the Vice-Chairman of the Board.
The ASSEB will be responsible for the secondary section of school education, Pegu mentioned during the oath-taking ceremony.
“The ASSEB will be responsible for conducting exams, issuing of certificates, and creation of course-curriculum and syllabus,” the state education minister said.
Talking about the attention to be paid to skill education in secondary school, Pegu said, “We have focused on STEM education and skills education. The new SOP has been published. How skills education and general education can be integrated will be worked upon soon.”
The minister stated that in various districts, there have been higher secondary and multipurpose schools, where the objective has been to provide skills-based, vocational, and multipurpose education along with higher secondary school education to ensure employability and livelihood means of students.
“This skill-based education is something that must be taught to students when in schools. We are trying to revive the already existing higher secondary and multipurpose schools in various districts in the state,” Pegu added.
The minister also spoke about schools collaborating with other bodies to propel students towards entrepreneurial pursuits and mould them into employable individuals.
“Schools must collaborate with other schools, colleges, and various public-sector industries, and private industries to sign MoUs to ensure a collaboration and inspire our students and youth towards entrepreneurship, and we must make them employable, that is our aim. Schools will not be isolated as MoUs will be signed to impart skills-based training and education to students,” Pegu said.
Upon being asked about whether the number of schools will be increased, Pegu said, “We have approximately 4500 schools. We need another 1500 schools to bring the school drop-out numbers to zero. This is just an estimated number; it is not an absolute.”
The number of secondary schools in Assam is increasing, according to the education minister.
“We have created 116 schools for tea gardens in the first phase. There are another 100 schools in the pipeline as construction work is undergoing. Again, we are upgrading high schools to include higher secondary classes; ME schools will be upgraded to high schools. Through these upgrading processes, our schools will be benefitted,” Pegu said.
Hailing the day as an important one for school education, Pegu said, “SEBA, having served for the last 60 years since 1964 to 2024, and AHSEC, having served for the last 40 years since 1984 to 2024, have been unified into one board called the Assam State School Education Board (ASSEB) today.”
