More than 4,000 schools, from primary to secondary levels, mostly under private management, shut down inAssambetween April 2021 and March 2022. The Education ministry has attributed this to the impact of Covid-19.
The Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) report by the ministry published earlier this week shows that the impact of the pandemic forced 20,000 schools to close down across the country during the same period.
Sources in the state education department pointed out that the ‘s policy of amalgamation of government schools has also contributed to a noticeable decline in the number of schools in the state.
A decline in the number of schools has been reported from all the northeastern states.
The closure of the schools has also reduced the teacher strength both nationally and at the state level.
The teacher strength in the country from the primary to the higher secondary level, reduced from 96.96 lakh in 2020-2021 to 95.07 lakh in 2021-2022.
The number of teachers in Assam declined to 3.52 lakh in the latest report from 3.7 lakh, which accounts for nearly a 10% reduction in teacher strength in the country.