Assam State Primary Teachers’ Association protests SCERT order for mid‑exam literacy test in 458 schools
The Assam State Primary Teachers’ Association has announced a protest programme against a government directive that inserts an additional assessment right in the middle of the final examination schedule. The organisation argues that if the authorities themselves cannot follow the policies they frame, there is little point in preparing an academic calendar at all.
According to the association, the academic calendar is routinely ignored by different layers of the education department. Sometimes Sarba Siksha Abhiyan projects, and at other times various state government schemes implemented through administrative orders, override the calendar. As a result, what should guide the school year has, in their view, been reduced to a largely ineffective document.
The latest flashpoint came when the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), disregarding its own calendar, issued a fresh instruction. In line with an NCERT-designed common examination schedule, SCERT ordered an “initial literacy assessment” to be held in 458 schools across Assam on 12 and 13 March, with ongoing exams kept in abeyance during those days.
However, final examinations in primary schools have already been fixed from 10 to 18 March. The teachers’ body says it is unacceptable to disturb the final evaluation of nearly 34,000 schools merely to accommodate testing in 458 institutions. Preparations for the finals are complete in all districts and students have already received their routines, they point out, so the new direction to District Elementary Education Officers has created serious confusion.
Instead of requesting NCERT to shift the literacy assessment in view of the pre‑scheduled final exams, SCERT is pressuring district officials to alter the evaluation timetable, the association alleges. The Assam State Primary Teachers’ Association has strongly opposed this approach.
President Nilakshi Gogoi and General Secretary Ratul Chandra Goswami have warned that if the order to suspend the final examination schedule for the literacy assessment is not withdrawn, teachers will stage a symbolic burning of the academic calendar in every primary school on the morning of 12 March, before conducting the assessment itself. The leadership has also demanded an end to what they call the wasteful spending of lakhs of rupees every year on preparing academic calendars that are not followed. State vice‑president Syed Ahmed Laskar conveyed these decisions in an official statement.