The Sonitpur District Administration in association with Tezpur University organized a one-day district-level workshop on ‘Challenges and Preparation of Roadmaps of Education in Sonitpur’ on 13th July 2022 at the Conference Room of Tezpur University Guest House. The workshop was attended by Presidents of the Governing Bodies and Principals of all colleges in the district and the Principals some selected schools. Professors of Tezpur University also attended the program as resource persons, where they discussed ways to improve the educational landscape of Sonitpur. The program was co-ordinated by Ms Dyotiva Bora, ADC, Sonitpur and Dr Jayanta Vishnu Das, Department of Cultural Studies, Tezpur University.
Sri Deba Kumar Misra, Deputy Commissioner, Sonitpur gave the opening remarks during the inaugural session of the workshop where he said that “Sonitpur can be a torchbearer of Assam” for education with proper academic infrastructure and a progressive attitude. Pallab Lochan Das, Member of Parliament, Tezpur, while giving the keynote address, said that the items discussed during the workshop will be forwarded to the Government of Assam for consideration of implementation. Prithviraj Rabha, MLA, Tezpur LAC and Sri Krishna Kamal Tanti, MLA, Rangapara LAC also exalted the event with their invaluable inputs. Dr Biren Das, Registrar, Tezpur University moderated the discussion. Principals of several schools and colleges in the district, such as Tezpur Govt. HS School, Darrang College, Rangapara College, Tezpur College, THB College, LOKD College, Govt College of Teacher Education, and the presidents of their governing bodies put forth the challenges they are facing and the possible remedies at the roundtable. They discussed at length the low student-to-teacher ratio, lack of infrastructure, the need for counselling sessions for behavioural change and student-teacher bonding, the best practices of the colleges and the need for a restructured syllabus in their institutions. They also talked about the damages caused by the Covid-19 pandemic to the educational sector and the dire need for restructuring the academic calendar. Prof Chandan Kumar Sharma, Department of Sociology, Tezpur University spoke about the role of media in not propagating vital educational news to the mass and the importance of outreach programs to bring society and colleges to a mould. Prof Nil Ratan Roy, Head, Department of Education, Tezpur University explained the roadmap and challenges in implementing National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in Colleges. He highlighted the need for an outcome-based curriculum in colleges, multidisciplinary education, the introduction of new interactive courses and a collaborative teaching process. Prof S S Sarkar, Director, Teaching Learning Centre, Tezpur University expounded on the leadership qualities expected of an academic professional such as consistency, direction, brand building, fund management and corpus and interactive teaching practices. He also referred to the training Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP) in his speech where emphasis was put on capacity building.
The participants also proposed that Dr Ranjan Kalita, Principal, Rangapara College and Dr Jyoti Kamal Hazarika, Principal, Tezpur College will take lead in preparing a proposal with a roadmap to improve the educational vista of the Sonitpur district and to prepare the students ready to serve. The event came to an end with the vote of thanks by Ms Karabi Karan, CEO, Zilla Parishad, Sonitpur.
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