Guwahati: Over the past seven years, the state of Assam has witnessed the closure or merger of more than 8,066 elementary schools, in accordance with a policy decision by the state government.
According to the school education department, in 2016, Assam had a total of 47,818 elementary schools, catering to 37,39,934 students. Among these, there were 39,986 lower primary (LP) schools, with a student enrollment of 28,46,663, and 7,832 upper primary (UP) schools, with 8,93,271 students.
Fast forward to 2023, and the number of Assam elementary schools has decreased to 39,752, accommodating 30,05,020 students. The count of LP schools has reduced to 33,937, with 21,863,733 students, while UP schools now number 5,815, hosting 8,18,647 students.
Analysing the available data reveals a decline of 8,066 Assam elementary schools, either closed permanently or merged. Out of these, 6,335 schools have been permanently shut down, while 1,731 schools have been merged.
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Breaking down the disappearance of 8,066 schools, 6,032 belong to the LP category, and 2,034 are UP schools. Noteworthy districts with the highest number of closed schools include 557 in Lakhimpur, 469 in Barpeta, 460 in Jorhat, 417 in Cachar, 408 in Dhubri, 405 in Kamrup, 358 in Nagaon, 352 in Dibrugarh, 347 in Sivasagar, 343 in Golaghat, and 150 in Kamrup (Metro), among others.
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