Guwahati, October 13 (IANS): Despite criticism against his government for shutting down several schools, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the process will continue as Assam has a higher number of schools than other states in the country.

“In other parts of the country, there is only one school within a 1 km radius. But in Assam, we have five schools within 1 km," he told reporters on Thursday.

“If this trend continues, then the people of Assam have to give birth to more children,” Sarma said sarcastically.

Assam earlier had a good number of venture schools, which were taken over by the government in the last few years.

“We have provincialized a lot of venture schools on humanitarian ground. However, this decision has increased the number of schools in many places. Now we think it is better to have five teachers in a school than a single teacher in five schools.”

He mentioned that after assessing every aspect, a few schools will be amalgamated with other schools.

Meanwhile, Sarma also claimed that the learning environment in government schools has immensely improved since the education department introduced digital attendance for students and teachers.