Describing it as a “new era in education” for tea garden areas, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Wednesday inaugurated six model schools or ‘Adarsha Vidyalayas’ in the Sonitpur district.
“For the first time since Independence, schools have been set up in the tea gardens for the children of the garden workers,” the chief minister said while inaugurating schools at Ghagra, Rupajuli, Sonajuli, Thakurbari and Phulbari tea gardens.
The proposal to set up 200 tea garden schools was introduced in the 2017-2018 state budget by Sarma when he was the finance minister.
Glad to be part of new era in education in tea garden areas. Inaugurated 2 Adarsha Vidyalayas at Phulbari & Thakurbari TEs in Sonitpur, among 96 such schools opened today.
Each school will get ₹1 lakh for free textbooks, uniforms, mid-day meal, etc. pic.twitter.com/OjTO7rGkTQ
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) May 25, 2022
While the state government has plans to build 119 such schools, 96 will begin this session. The remaining 22 are in different stages of construction and will be made functional from the next academic year. In November 2020, foundation stones for 119 model schools were laid at a cost of Rs 142.50 crore. In the last two years, the state public works department constructed these high schools at “strategically-located” tea estates.
On Wednesday, Sarma said that 14,594 students have enrolled in these schools so far. Each school will have eight faculty members, he said.
Ranoj Pegu, Assam’s Minister of Education and Welfare of Plain Tribe & Backward Classes, had earlier told The Indian Express that the new schools will “reduce the burden” on tea garden workers. “After lower primary schools, there are no facilities available in the garden areas for higher education. Some Middle English schools (ME schools with classes from 6-8) came up but there were no high schools,” he had said, “In the absence of high schools, children of garden workers would have to travel far. Some parents could not afford to send their children and so, many dropped out,” he said.
Assam’s 800-odd tea gardens are inhabited by workers who 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. Politically considered a crucial vote bank and referred to as the ‘Tea Tribes’, they have for generations lived marginalised, isolated lives in the gardens. Literacy and education, too, have long suffered in these areas.
