Educational Changes in Post Colonial Assam with Special Reference to Higher Education: An Analysis

Education is a dynamic process as it changes in accordance with the changing nature of society. The education system is not a single phenomenon and it incorporates structure of education, aims of education, curriculum of education, methods of teaching, examination and evaluation system, educational administration and management etc. Every country has its own national system of education. Now a day, a diversified and multiple changes are taken place in the education system in all over the world. The educational scenario of Assam is also changing that have been taken place in different aspects involving both quantitative and qualitative aspects. The history of growth and development of higher education in Assam is not so old. The first college and university in the region, Cotton College and Gauhati University, Guwahati was established in 1901 and 1948. The establishment of the first University at Guwahati in January 1948 gave a real boost to the expansion of higher education from the pre-university up to the postgraduate and doctoral level in the whole of North East India. In this paper, the investigator makes an attempt to give an overview of the development of higher education in Assam highlighting the changes that taken place in post colonial assam. It mainly focuses on general education only not covering technical, vocational and professional education. The changes that are taken place in terms of literacy rate, number of institutions, Number of enrolment, examination and evaluation system, mode of education are to be discussed in the paper.