For both critical care and medical education, the year was remarkable. Assam Emerged as the top state, which had the maximum improvement among larger states in overall performance and is among the top three best states in incremental performance as per NITI Aayog’s Health Index for 2019-20, which was released. This week. In addition, Assam achieved the feat of being the third best performing state in Non-Communicable Diseases and Common Cancer Screening among Northeast, Hilly and Tribal States.
The year 2021 was a landmark year in scaling up critical care facilities. Since the PM Cares Fund was launched last year, the Center has sent a total of 967 BEL ventilators to Assam and most of these were installed this year. The state government also accelerated its plan to build 1,000 Pediatric Intensive Care Units (PICUs), with a minimum target of 10 in each district.
The number of MBBS seats in the state’s medical colleges has gone up to 1,100 after the National Medical Commission (NMC) approved 100 seats for the newly constructed Lakhimpur Medical College, the eighth medical college in the state. Medical education in Assam received a major boost when the MBBS course was officially inaugurated at Diphu Medical College (DMC) in Karbi Anglong in February, taking the total number of MBBS seats in the state to 1,000.
Still, the state had to grapple with Covid cases, which almost doubled in just nine months, if compared to a full year from March 31, 2020, to March 31, 2021. However, the battle continues amid Omicron’s fears, with the recovery rate reaching 98.7%. A total of 5,057 people have died in the second wave so far, while over 4.02 lakh cases have been reported.
Assam has exceeded the initial target of vaccinating 2.13 crore people of the state with the first dose. Overall, Assam achieved the milestone of three crore vaccines for COVID-19.
The education sector was affected by the pandemic throughout the year. The physical board exams were canceled and thousands of students faced great difficulty in studying in online mode. But it prepared the students to face new challenges.
A massive increase of 30% was registered in the class X state board exam results. The overall pass percentage this year in the High School Leaving Certificate Examination is 93.10, which is the best ever result in the history of SEBA. The board results of class XII also got exceptional pass percentage of over 99 in three streams on formula based assessment.
IIT Guwahati students have overcome all odds amid the pandemic with three students getting home offers worth over Rs 1.1 crore in campus placements this month. IIT Guwahati has been again placed in the top-10 of the NIRF rankings this year. The Assam Education Department announced the name of Olympic bronze medalist boxer Lovlina Borgohain as its brand ambassador to promote holistic education activities in the state.
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