As an initiative to promote healthy living and quality education, the state education department will soon be declaring all the government secondary schools in Assam tobacco-free zones.
On April 26, the Secretary for Secondary Education, R C Jain, had launched the mission by issuing instructions to all school inspectors, which included a set of questions for the school principals. They have now started sending declarations that their institutes are tobacco-free, which are now being forwarded to the RMSA office.
Districts with tobacco-free zone schools
The state has 4,316 government secondary schools, and out of these, all secondary schools in the districts of Lakhimpur, Baksa, Tinsukia, Udalguri, Sonitpur, Golaghat, Goalpara, and Bongaigaon have been reported to be Tobacco-free Educational Institutions (TFEI), as per the submissions made by school inspectors to the secondary education department (Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan).
Fighting tobacco addiction:
Jain said that the educational institutes must be tobacco-free to ensure an atmosphere for imparting quality education, and as such, this has been accorded priority to this endeavor. He said, ”The endeavor will enable us to save the future generations from the deadly clutches of tobacco addiction.”
”Sustained efforts have been leading to positive results in this respect”, he further added.
The mission to make schools tobacco-free in the state is being pursued by Healis Seksaria Institute for Public Health, the education department, and Dr. B Barooah Cancer Institute, in association with Tata Trusts. As many as 78 secondary schools in Bongaigaon, 189 in Baksa, 79 in Udalguri, 197 in Sonitpur, and 120 in Goalpara have also been declared tobacco-free zones.
