Assam Gunotsav 2025 Begins Today in State

Introduction

Gunotsav is a programme organised by the Government of Assam towards the improvement of the quality education in the schools’ education system. This is a comprehensive census base evaluation coming under 4 heads viz. Scholastic (learning outcomes), Co-scholastic & other areas, Community Participation & Contribution and Availability & Use of Infrastructure. Gunotsav represents several Government/Provincialized, Tea Garden Management Schools, Tea Garden Model Schools, Adarsha Vidyalayas, and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas along with some Residential Schools. The study is OMR based. 100% schools are evaluated. There have been grading system for the schools on the basis of their performances as A+, A, B, C, and D that’s evaluated by using inspection authority.

---

The Grading System:

The area wise weightage of grading of school:

• Scholastic : 90%
• Co-scholastic and other areas : 5%
• Community Participation & Contributions : 5

---

No Infrastructure as a part of Grading for Schools

External Evaluator Hon’ble Minister, Minister, Hon’ble MLA, Chief Secretary to GOA; Senior IAS, IPS, and IFS officers-all class I & II officers of state engage in this exercise. External evaluators need to present in the assigned schools from morning assembly (9am) till completion of the exercise (up to labeling, packaging etc.) including submission of confidential report.

This exercise has initiate massive awareness among the stakeholders-parent/guardians, teachers, community etc. They are like mentor and guide of the school. They spend whole day in the school and offer quality suggestion to the school for improvement. Their presence creates a new environment in the school. The confidential report submitted by them during the visit will help in formulating a specific strategy for the improvement of quality school education. It creates a positive feeling among the community and parents towards the Govt. school system. Various initiatives, including quality education, infrastructural development, etc., have been taken by the state based on the results of Gunotsav.

This exercise has been found to have a significant impact on the school education scenario of the state. Immense involvement of community in school activities, such as setting up of dining hall with furniture, punching machine, temporary class-room/building and academic support in addition to that by involving local youth etc.

It helps increase attendance of students and teachers. This has induced a positive mindset among community and parents about the Government school system. Cases have surfaced of transfer of children from private to Government schools.

The first Gunotsav has been organized in 2017 and approximately 48868 schools were covered in the Gunotsav out of which 6037 (12.35%) schools received an A+ grade, 12927(26.45%) schools A, 13636 (27.9%) B, 9163 (18.75%) C and 7105 (14.54) D. The School Education Department, Govt. of Assam and the District Administrations have undertaken several remedial measures based on Gunotsav results, as a result of which grading of schools has improved tremendously during the Gunotsav 2024. A total of 11593(35.76%) Schools received A+, 14932(46.05%) A, 4603(14.20%) B, 1032(3.18%) C and 261(0.81%) D. In Gunotsav 2024, an extra 5758 schools were awarded A+ for the second year in a row (Gunotsav 2023 & 2024).

---

Assam Gunotsav 2025

This initiative became part of the focus on enhancing the education quality in Assam, stated by Education Minister Ranoj Pegu. He requested everyone for full participation and cooperation for the successful implementation of the scheme. The evaluation might be achieved for diverse academic establishments together with Adarsha Vidyalayas, Tea garden model schools, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Avasiya Vidyalayas and Tea Garden Management Schools.

The sixth round of Gunotsav 2025 is scheduled to commence on January 6 and culminate on February 8. The event will be taking place in three phases. Gunotsav is an annual statewide campaign meant to have more children be within the reach of school education and better learning outcomes.

The minister for education, Ranoj Pegu, inaugurated the Gunotsav mobile application recently, and all the assessment reports for the last year are available on the portal along with assessment taken from external evaluators and head teachers in this year to make exercise Gunotsav really simple as the findings will now be in a digitized format. The annual Gunotsav exercise is conducted to assess scholastics, co-scholastics, infrastructure of schools, and community involvement through SMCs and SMDCs.

The main aim of Gunotsav is to fill the gaps in learning identified through the exercise, but infrastructure assessments in schools will not be included in the grading of the schools during Gunotsav.

Gunotsav 2025 will be held in three phases, with Phase 1 focusing on the 11 districts of Barpeta, Bajali, Sribhumi (Karimganj) and Kamrup, as well as Karbi Anglong, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur, Nagaon, Sivasagar, South Salmara-Mankachar and Udalguri. 1st phase of self-evaluation will be on 06th January, 2025 and external evaluation will be from 07th to 09th January, 2025.

Phase II will include 14 districts of Baksa, Chirang, Charaideo, Dhemaji, Dhubri, Golaghat, Hailakandi, Hojai, Jorhat, Kamrup (Metro), Sonitpur, Tamulpur, Tinsukia, and West Karbi Anglong. Self-evaluation: January 17, 2025External evaluation: January 20–22, 2025.

Phase III will take place in the 10 districts Bongaigaon, Biswanath, Darrang, Dibrugarh, Goalpara, Cachar, Nalbari, Morigaon, Dima Hasao, and Majuli, with self-evaluation scheduled for February 5, 2025, and external evaluation for February 6 to 8, 2025.

---

Conclusion

Gunotsav helps to establish the learning gaps of each child and take necessary remedial measures. Scholastic remedial teaching had been provided on weaker learning outcomes specifically to target grade C and grade D institutions. Infrastructure development pertaining to partitioning of rooms, electrification etc. have been carried out based on the outcomes of Gunotsav. It was a twinning initiative between schools attaining A+ and A Grade with the B & C graded schools so that such partnership could be made use off to good performing schools to cater to specific needs of not-so-great-performing schools and to share best practices.

This is an initiative that seeks to bring all the stakeholders-including teachers, students, administrators and communities-closer to the project by enhancing their accountability in quality education. It is important to know that 10% of the marks in Annual Examination would go into Gunotsav and Gunotsav is now included in the State Academic Calendar.

---