The joy of learning

Pathsala for most of us would mean just a school but it is a bustling town in Assam , which is quietly brining about an education revolution in the state. Earlier, it was known only for its mobile theaters but today, children from as far as even Bhutan come to this town for education, a better alternate than going all the way to Guwahati.

It all started in 2002, when the first private institute was started – Balaji Academy of Excellence and in 2005, a student from this institute came second in the entire state in the faculty of Arts. That immediately catapulted the  town and the institute into the limelight. But the man who really started a revolution was Ranjit Deka who set up Anundoram Borooah Academy, which houses a primary school, a high school, a junior college, a degree college, a B Ed College and a coaching at different locations around Pathsala. His institute produced a record number of rank holders every single year since 2006. And like the small town of Kota in Rajasthan which has become a bustling place for coaching classes for IIT aspirants, many schools and institutes have sprung up now in Pathsala.

The town has attracted the innumerable tribals from all across the State, including huge number of Bodo students too. The coming up of the National Highway 152 which connects the town to Bhutan is also getting in droves of students coming to Pathsala to study.  As we live our busy lives in the metros and cities, it is great to know that such quiet but very integral revolutions are happening in the smaller towns of India. And it would be interesting to know if the name of the town Pathsala came in after this education revolution or did the name itself mark the destiny of the town?