Even as Assam takes pride in its journey towards becoming a "developed state," reality on the ground is anything but that for some—at least so far as education is concerned. Located within the Sribhumi area under the South Karimganj constituency is an incongruous address: the 1144 No. Purba Khagail Lower Primary School. With only 72 students and a pitiful few teachers, it is nothing more than a survival location and not a measure of progress.

The school, if a school it is, runs under conditions that would render even the barest minimum a luxury. Cracked walls, cracked floors, no proper furniture, non-functional toilets, and one dilapidated tin-roofed building are the sole classroom for children who can dream big. Class is usually adjourned—or sometimes even cancelled—on rainy days because rainwater pours in from roof leakages.

But every morning, children come in uniform, their books and expectations, unblemished by what they see. Teachers too have turned into caregivers—sweeping the floors, comforting frightened children during thunderstorms, and doing everything they can to create a sense of learning.

The people complain that they have raised the issue time and again, but nothing concrete is done except making verbal promises. "Politicians" come to our doorstep at election time, take pictures, and vanish," said a mother. "Our children want more. They want respect."

What's ironic is the yawning gap between Assam's digital literacy initiatives and smart classrooms, and schools here in disrepair. While metros boast of coding classes and e-learning material, children here wait for decent tables and drinking water.

True development begins at the grassroots level. No manner of possibility that a state can pride itself on progress when the youngest minds are lying on dirty floors under decayed roofs. If indeed we are to invest in the future, then we begin by securing the present—especially where the present has been so long neglected.

The Directorate of Education (DoE), Govt. of NCT of Delhi has instructed all the concerned institutions to adopt the minimum age condition of 6 years for admission to Class 1 from session 2026-27 in terms of provisions made under National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009. The foundation stage has been reorganized to offer three years of pre-primary education prior to Class 1.

NEP 2020 substituted the 10+2 structure with the 5+3+3+4 structure, reclassifying the school education into four development stages: five years of foundation stage, three years of the preparation stage, three years of middle stage and four years of the secondary stage.

The DoE has directed all the Heads of Government, Government-Aided, and Recognized Unaided Private Schools to implement changes from the academic year 2026-27.

Pre-Primary Stages of school will be reorganized according to the NEP 2020 and will have three years of pre-primary school going before Class 1. The kids will be at Nursery (Bal Vatika/Preschool 1) age 3 years, Lower KG (Bal Vatika/Preschool 2) age 4 years, and the final stage of pre-primary is Upper KG (Bal Vatika/Preschool 3) age 5 years.

"A child will be eligible for Class I only if he/she reaches the age of 6 years from Academic Session 2026-27 onwards" the government circular stated.

For making it participatory and inclusive, all stakeholder groups concerned - schools, School Management Committees, school associations, students, teachers, professionals, subject experts, researchers, scholars, and members of general public were invited to provide their comments on or before July 10, 2025.

In reply to allegations of declining general education standards, a high-level meeting of the General Education Department has decided to implement a minimum marks scheme from Class V to IX. This was revealed by Education Minister V Sivankutty at a press meet in Kozhikode on Saturday.

It had been agreed earlier that students should get at least 30 per cent marks in the year-end Class VIII exam, subject-wise, and that students failing to achieve it should be promoted to the next class by providing special study assistance during holidays.

This proposition attracted considerable social attention. Students, teachers and parents were made aware of the significance of the study support. In addition to this, we also were made aware of the significance of attaining the learning goals in each class. This is not an activity that one should undertake after the end-of-year examination, according to the minister.

For Grades V to IX, 30 per cent marks in subject-wise written examinations. It is not meant to limit or screen out children's brilliance to 30 per cent but to take all the children up to the level of acceptability prescribed by the curriculum.

Department of education level monitoring will be managed to support project implementation. The issues will be trained at the state level to Deputy Directors of Education, DEOs, AEOs, DIET Principals, Vidyakiranam District Coordinators, and Samagra Shiksha Keralam District Project Coordinators. The concerned education officers will provide training to the head teachers of schools under their circle.

All the head teachers of government schools in Kerala will be trained by July 15. Cluster training on July 19 has also been scheduled involving all teachers in school-level activities of the overall quality education programme, early identification of the learning status of the students, and providing necessary learning support.

Revised textbooks for Special Schools

This year, for the first time in state education history, a decision was made to prepare and distribute special textbooks for special deaf school children. The books were prepared under SCERT guidance considering the special abilities of the children. Release and distribution function will be held on June 30 at Government Vocational Higher Secondary School for the Deaf, Jagathy, Thiruvananthapuram.

HEAD TEACHERS MUST ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY OF MID-DAY MEAL SCHEME

Meanwhile, the minister again emphasized that head teachers must also assume the responsibility of the controversial modified menu of the mid-day meals scheme such as vegetable fried rice, lemon rice and vegetable biryani. "The schools can raise funds from the CSR fund, NGOs and individuals to implement the project.".

The headmasters have to manage such tasks and they get a salary for that. Purchasing goods on credit and paying them later is a routine affair. No head teacher will go into debt to provide for children," the minister responded, in response to head teachers' complaint that there is not enough government financial support available to run the midday meals scheme.

PTAs in schools to be strengthened

The government is seriously considering making the Parent Teacher Associations of public schools stronger academically. As part of curriculum reform, it has been planned to prepare books for parents and provide orientation accordingly. The Department of General Education is going to conduct district-level, state-level art and sports competitions for PTAs this year in order to enable parents to become active participants in school activities. Minister Sivankutty also criticized the Union Government in the context of the fund crisis in Samagra Shiksha Keralam schemes.

"If interventions/activities being performed by Samagra Shiksha Keralam are not carried out, a situation will be achieved where a major portion of children from backward classes will not be able to get into school. Samagra Shiksha Keralam is implementing a centrally sponsored scheme.". Though Kerala is funding this, the Centre has stopped the funds stating the state has rejected the PM SHRI scheme. The students of common people and marginal classes would be affected by this," Sivankutty alleged.

A wave of hope swept over the residents of the West Garo Hills district on June 18 when Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma opened the two-story building of the new Dalu Government Higher Secondary School. The initiative, made under the umbrella of Mission Education Phase I, is a significant step in the direction of the state's drive towards rural educational infrastructure development.

Speaking of the purpose, CM Sangma underscored that the vision is not merely constructing classrooms. "We are dedicated to the all-round development of our youth — from sports and education to music and entrepreneurship," he said.

In a private message on his official X handle, he posted, "We have reconstructed and built new government schools and colleges in the past few years, and even established the Captain Williamson Sangma State University, the first in our state."

Through the investment of nearly ₹3,000 crore in sectors like youth entrepreneurship, sports, and education, Sangma reiterated the commitment of the government towards the building of the next generation. Initiatives like CM Elevate and PRIME form the crux of this exercise.

In the afternoon, he also inaugurated the PRIME Hub in Baghmara — a hub which was envisioned to make local entrepreneurs, self-help groups, and farmers stronger. "PRIME Hubs are becoming economic hubs, catalysing activity in favour of communities in livelihood-generating initiatives," he posted on Twitter, inaugurating the centre in favour of region people.

For Dalu's students and future entrepreneurs in Baghmara, the day was never about ribbon-cutting alone — it was a vow. A vow that even in the remoteness of the location, Meghalaya's youth will be provided with opportunities so that they can dream larger, reach higher, and build bigger lives.

In Sangma's words and deeds, the message came across clearly: development is not about buildings, but about human lives — and it starts with making the young strong.

Seven states were recommended by the School Education Department to adopt a common board in classes 10 and 12 after the department's analysis put the seven states in the red flag for registering 66 per cent of student failures during last year, officials reported.

There are seven states in the nation that are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Kerala, Manipur, Odisha, Telangana and West Bengal.

There are 66 school boards of the nation, of which there are three national-level boards and 63 state-level boards (54 regular and 12 open boards),

While the first 33 boards cover 97 per cent of students, the remaining 33 boards cover a meager 3 per cent of students.

"Common board for class 10 and 12 is the future for education to be simple. In the absence of a common board, there are poor educational outcomes. We have recommended these states to implement a common board," School Education Secretary Sanjay Kumar stated.

22.17 lakh Class 10 and 20.16 lakh Class 12 students failed in the whole country in 2024.

Though the position in the figures changed during the decade, government officials maintain that it is still a significant hindrance to greater retention and promotion to higher education.

"Role of National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) in such states came into prominence to bring the failed students into education. NIOS's current visibility near Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana (where lowest failure rates are observed) has to be carried into other states.".

"Standardisation of assessment procedure, curriculums, setting of papers, elevation (to the next class), exam duration also require Boards' attention," Kumar said.

The report said open school boards performed poorly, with only 54 per cent of Class 10 and 57 percent of Class 12 passing.

"Institutions like NIOS should complement efforts at dropout prevention, supplemented by Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan and increased parental involvement," Kumar said.

One of the trends seen is girls surpassing boys on most boards, particularly in science. Over 28 lakh girls cleared science, which overtook the 27.2 lakh in arts - a turnabout from previous trends and an increase from 23.3 lakh in 2022.

The report mentioned enormous disparities between students' performance in various medium of instruction.

Candidates in Malayalam and Odia mediums performed much better than counterparts writing in Kannada, Telugu or Assamese, a factor of regional differences. Those states with board systems which have been implemented, including Kerala, Odisha and Manipur, all recorded more than 97 per cent pass percentages, with Kerala recording 99.96 per cent.

Analysis report also registered Navodaya Vidyalayas (NVs) with good performances as 72 per cent of students passed in NEET-UG. Students of Kendriya and Navodaya Vidyalayas also did well in engineering entrance exams.

The NVs are residential, co-educational institutions providing quality modern education from Class VI to XII to meritorious students, predominantly from rural background.

The most significant change this time is that Class 10 board marks will be taken as a tie-breaker for the students in case they are tied CUET and Class 12 marks. The Delhi University (DU) has begun the 2025-26 admission session, and the Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) portal for UG admissions has opened.

One significant change in the process this year is that Class 10 board exam marks will act as a second tie-breaker if students are equal on CUET and Class 12 marks. Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh said that the admission portal has been upgraded with an auto-accept facility so that students will not lose seat allocations.

DU will offer 79 undergraduate courses in 69 colleges with 71,624 seats. The academic year will start from August 1.

The second round of UG admissions will begin after CUET results are announced. Application is now feasible on the basis of one language and three subjects or two languages and two subjects - whichever combination will give a better score shall be considered. The earlier requirement of obtaining at least 30% of marks in language subjects in order to apply for BSc (Hons) admission has been done away with.

DU had also invited application for skill-based courses at its Centre for Innovative Skill-Based Courses.

In the postgraduate department, 11,314 seats have been taken, and nearly 2,000 students have booked their seats in only the first two hours of notification. DU is running 82 postgraduate programs this year, with new programs such as MA in Tourism Management and MA in Hindi Journalism. They also plan to introduce an MA in Journalism under the English department.

The university has extended one-seat quota in every postgraduate programme to single-girl child candidates.

Apart from this, admission gates are now marginally open for five-year integrated law, BTech, and School of Open Learning (SOL) programmes. Most PG admissions at SOL will be done on the CUET score basis, but MBA, BLISc, MLISc, and PGDADLM programmes shall also have a merit-based process.

Yogeswari, a village girl from Tamil Nadu's Virudhunagar district, who lives in Sathur village, has got admission to IIT-Bombay's course in Aerospace Engineering. Her journey from not knowing anything about Aerospace Engineering to getting a seat in the top institute is an instance of unparallel commitment. Yogeshwari studies at Padanthal Government School in Sathur village, her dad sells tea from a stall and her mom works in a firecracker company

For her, the threshold point was through Chief Minister MK Stalin's favorite plans 'Naan Mudhalvan' plan and 'Kalluri Kanavu' plan, which offer introductions to college studies and help students with applying and preparing for competitive exams. Yogeswari had no idea that something was known as JEE exam even existed before taking up these schemes.

"I was at a program and they explained to me about JEE and how to join. I cleared JEE Mains and then they got me admitted in JEE Advance Coaching. It was tough first but gradually I read and cleared JEE Advance. I'm glad that I've got admission at Aerospace Engineering at IIT-Bombay," said Yogeswari.

She attributes District Collector VP Jeyaseelan for having introduced her to opportunities in higher education and applying using JEE. The courses gave her excellent direction on exam preparation that helped her succeed. "Naan Mudhalvan and Kalluri Kanavu programs were conducted by District Collector Jeyaseelan and through them I got to know about higher studies and how to apply for it. They advised me to apply for JEE and how to prepare for it due to which I could crack the exam."

She thanked Chief Minister MK Stalin and District Collector Jeyaseelan, who have pledged to finance her higher class studies, deeming these schemes as a godsend for backward economic children. "I thank Chief Minister MK Stalin and District Collector Jeyaseelan who have pledged to fund my higher studies," she stated.

Hard work and dedication were the only tools Yogeswari had to chase such a massive dream. Yogeswari aspires to become an aerospace technology like her role models Sunita Williams and Kalpana Chawla.

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