Education in the Northeast 

The North eastern region ofIndia has traditionally been lagging behind the rest of India in terms of socioeconomic progress since independence. It has also been one of the most neglected regions, in terms of Government investment in critical areas like health, education and infrastructure development. Despite having vast potential resources, the NER stands much below the national average in terms of developmental indices such as per capita state domestic product, power consumption per capita, road length per square km., etc.

The Shukla Commission (1997), which was formed by the Government of India specifically to look into the development lags of the region, identified four deficits that confront the North East –
*basic needs deficit
*infrastructural deficit
*resource deficit
*two-way deficit of understanding with the rest of the country.

The drop out rate from primary school for children inAssam is extremely high and stands at 68.95% as against 40.3% in India as a whole. The situation in Meghalaya is similar, in Mizoram it is 63.97%  and in Tripura 66.93% (Source: Sarva Siksha Abhiyan).

The drop out rate for children from classes I to X is at present 78%. And of serious concern is the fact that in states like Assam , this trend is growing in contrast to the decrease in drop out rate seen all over the country.

*Education in the public schooling system is seen to be synonymous with literacy. Major emphasis is given to book-based knowledge.

*Amenities that are integral to children for their all round development  such as libraries, provision for teaching music and the arts, games and sports, debate, quiz, creative writing – are seldom provided.

*There is a lack of basic amenities, school houses are in poor state of repair and fail to provide an atmosphere that is appealing to young children or conducive to their education

*The prevailing situation of armed conflict in five of the North  Eastern States has contributed greatly to the current situation of education that children have been receiving.

*The student-teacher ratio even though documented at 1:33, is often in reality 1: 150 to 1:190 because of lack of teachers. 17% of schools are 1 teacher schools and 47% are 2 teacher schools in Assam . Thus individual needs of children are often neglected.

*Absenteeism among teachers is of serious concern (21-23%).

*Children from the lower socio-economic section of the society have no other means to access comprehensive education.