Himanta Biswa Sarma: Tea community children should aspire to be doctors & engineers

BISWANATH: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today inaugurating an ‘Adarsh Mahavidyalaya’ in Biswanath district said that tea community children should now aspire to be doctors and engineers as education is becoming more accessible thanks to the government’s initiative to provide schools in many estates.

Addressing a gathering at the Pertabghur tea estate in Biswanath district, CM Biswa Sarma encouraged the tea tribe community to ask their children to go for higher education instead of “plucking leaves.”

“You have seen that nowadays, you don’t have to give bribes to get jobs (...) I feel honoured because Assam is one of the few states where you don’t have to give bribes for jobs,” he said.

Taking about the challenges about setting up schools in the tea estates, Chief Minister Sarma said: “Nobody believed that these schools would be set up. Had COVID not been there, we might have been open the schools a few months earlier. Despite the COVID situation, that we have been able to open schools in gardens is testimony to a new and modern Assam.”

Claiming that the tea garden community has been ignored by earlier governments, Sarma said that the BJP in its years of rule has worked to elevate the working conditions of the community.

CM Biswa Sarma reiterated that the children of the tea workers can avail a good future through the means of education. At one point, he even addressed the gathering of tea community workers in their native tongue.

In a bid to provide educational facilities to children of tea garden workers of Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday inaugurated six model schools, while 90 more started academic activities.

Yesterday, Sarma inaugurated the schools at Ghagra, Rupajuli, Sonajuli, Thakurbari and Fulbari tea gardens in Sonitpur district.

The state government had earlier said it would set up 119 such schools in tea garden areas, and around 15,000 students have been enrolled so far. Eight teachers have been appointed for each school. The government has kickstarted the process to set up 96 schools for the tea estate children.

Sarma has said that these 'Adarsh Vidyalayas' will offer higher secondary courses from next year onwards. The Chief Minister said that the government will also try to build colleges in the tea estates at the earliest.