Need of Academic Reform in Higher Education: A Study with Reference to Chirang District of Assam

Abstract

Priti Prasun Debnath Abstract: Academic activities are the central activities of an area around which other activities should revolve, but unfortunately in our land academics is often held subservient to the political issues making academics a soft casualty. Among the districts in Assam, Chirang invariably finds itself at the bottom of the list in terms of academic performance. Chirang is a new district in Bodoland Territorial Council which was created in 2004. Chirang district is deemed one of the most backward districts educationally. Being a new district, it naturally lags behind in terms of education as compared to most other districts in Assam. Another factor for poor academic performance in the district is fewer higher educational institutions than those in the other districts of Assam. The socio-political situation is equally responsible for the poor academic performance in the district. The frequent ethnic clashes in the district also merit a mention in this context. It is worth mentioning that during calamities, some of the educational institutions in the district did suffer due to the fact that those institutions were being used as relief camps for the homeless victims of the ethnic clash. In this paper therefore, an attempt has been made to explore how academic atmosphere suffers due to social and political factors, and accordingly, has provided suggestions to eradicate them to develop the scenario of higher education in the district of Chirang in Assam. Key words:...