Ray of hope for education in Assam's 'char' areas

An ambitious rural education programme aims at bringing a ray of hope for those residing in Assam's seasonal islands of the Brahmaputra river and its tributaries where poverty and illiteracy are common.
The Ajmal National Rural Education Programme (ANREM) will focus on the 'char' (seasonal islands) villages as these account for one of the largest concentration of illiterate population in the state with 68 per cent of the dwellers being below the poverty line.
Launched by NGO Ajmal Foundation, it aims to improve the prevailing dismal educational scenario in the backward 'char' and tribal areas of 17 districts in the state.

"The programme has been evolved following long-drawn consultations with front ranking educationists for the last one-and-a-half years. The first step has been to adopt schools under its pilot project and the focus will be on improving its infrastructure," says Programme Coordinator N I Laskar.
A dozen schools have been already selected in the most backward areas of the state and "we will support them in their infrastructure building under the pilot project of the movement," he adds.
Preference will be given to private schools which do not receive any support from the government or any other agencies.

According to the Socio-Economic Survey Report of the Assam Directorate of Char Areas Development, the literacy rate in these areas increased marginally from 15.45 per cent to 19.31 per cent between 1992-93 and 2003-04.

Schools adopted under the project will be also provided
with scientific and educational kits which include laboratory equipment and tools for use in their classrooms, says Laskar.
As a part of its launch programme, 17 teachers from backward and remote areas of Assam have been honoured with memento and Rs 50,000 in cash each for 'Lifetime Contribution to the cause of Education'.
In due course, a separate plan will be prepared for each school to improve their infrastructure including furniture, equipment, educational aid, toilet and sanitation facilities, teachers training, special coaching sessions, student exchange programme, sports facilities, e-learning etc.
"As implementation of the project progresses, we expect various problems to come to the fore and we shall evolve our programme accordingly," says Ajmal Foundation's Deputy Manager M R H Azad.

The districts identified for the project are Dhubri, Goalpara, Bongaigaon, Barpeta, Sibsagar, Nalbari, Kamrup (Rural), Sonitpur, Morigaon, Darrang, Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Golaghat, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh and also in some tribal areas of the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD).
Meanwhile, a support body 'Friends of ANREM' comprising teachers, professionals, youth activists and students from institutions of higher studies has been formed for extending voluntary services to this movement, he says.
Further, aid will be sought from corporate houses which can act as facilitators for ANREM under their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects, Laskar adds.
Innumerable chars dot the 720 km stretch of Brahmaputra in the state and are distributed across 17 districts of the state.