The Assam government will appoint over 4,700 persons in various posts of the Education Department as part of a mega recruitment drive on September 23, a minister said on Tuesday.

Education Minister Ranoj Pegu said appointment letters for 4,717 posts in his department will be handed over during the function on Friday.

“Most of these posts are of teachers from school to college levels. Apart from teachers, vacancies in other posts will also be filled up during the exercise,” he told reporters here.

The list includes the names of 1,298 teachers, who had gone to the Gauhati High Court over a grace mark issue, after the court vacated its stay order on their appointments, Pegu stated.

Out of the total posts, 3,811 will be in schools, 803 in higher education and 103 in technical education sectors, he added.

The Assam government will give appointment letters to around 12,000 youths on September 23 in various departments in a mega recruitment exercise in Guwahati.

The minister also said that a ‘White Paper’ will be published by the Education Department, covering all areas such as school, college and technical education.

“Since 2011, massive reforms have taken place in the Education Department. Over two lakh appointments were given. Huge amount of infrastructure development is going on. That is why we have decided to bring out a ‘White Paper’ on our department,” he added.

Pegu said that work on the planned ‘White Paper’ is going on and it is expected to be released within the next two months.

When asked about closing down government-run schools, the Education minister said that the department has received proposals to amalgamate 1,710 schools with other nearby institutes from the districts.

“After that, we have received around 300 applications requesting us not to amalgamate those concerned schools. They cited various reasons for these 300 schools like historic importance or named after some important personalities or physical difficulties in going to the new school,” he added.

Pegu said that a central committee has been formed to look after these appeals and they will decide on every case separately.

“During the last exercise a few years ago, we provincialised teachers but did not touch the schools. So, there was a question of what would happen to those schools. We will amalgamate those schools this time,” he added.

Pegu, however, said that the entire exercise of amalgamation will be carried out without violating the Right to Education of the children.

Provincialisation means the government taking over all liabilities of a non-government school, which was established with the sole purpose of imparting education to serve the society, for payment of salaries and other benefits to the teachers.

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