Guwahati: The Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) has launched a pioneering space education initiative, expanding a network of “School Space Labs” to 15 government schools across Bodoland.
The initiative, a dream project of Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) Chief Pramod Boro, aims to transform children’s natural curiosity about the cosmos into practical STEM learning for thousands of students.
The initiative, officially named the Bodoland Space Education Programme, pairs modern laboratory kits and telescopes with mentorship from ISRO-recognised “Space Tutor” agencies.
As the National Space Day 2025 was celebrated on August 23 with the theme Aryabhatta to Gaganyaan: Ancient Wisdom to Infinite Possibilities, the BTR’s initiative has tried to honour the traditional Astronomy and showcase the modern space achievements.
Because of the positive response, the ‘Bodoland Space Education Programme’ saw rapid scale-up since the opening of the first government-school space lab in mid-2024.
The 15-lab milestone was achieved during the National Space Day commemorations this month.
The Bodoland Space Education Programme roots trace back to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the BTR government and New Delhi-based Vyomika Space Academy to set up labs in 10 higher secondary schools.
As a partner to ISRO, Vyomika supplies curriculum, training, and hardware, including model launch vehicles, telescopes, and teaching materials.
Speaking about the initiative, Prabhat Basumatary, father of 16-year-old Chittaranjan, said, “The thought of black holes swallowing light, galaxies stretching endlessly, or humans living on other planets sparks both wonder and determination.”
Chittaranjan draws his inspiration from American astronomer Carl Edward Sagan, and is determined to work for organizations like ISRO, NASA, or even SpaceX.
The first milestone came on July 19, 2024, when BTR inaugurated the Chino Basumatary Memorial Space Laboratory at Sidli-Kashikotra Higher Secondary School in Chirang.
The facility is widely regarded as the first-of-its-kind in a government school in the Northeast.
The event brought together the BTR leadership, senior education officials, and space experts, signaling that this was not a one-off facility but the start of a network.
“Students of our school are always excited to attend the classes at the Space Lab, and I am optimistic that our school will be able to produce space scientists of the future,” Manju Boro, Principal of Sidli-Kashikotra Higher Secondary School, said.
Subsequently, the BTR government attached memorial names to the other labs to honour educators and community figures and to anchor a sense of ownership in each town.
To foster a sense of local pride and ownership, the labs have been named after prominent educators and community figures. As local leaders argue, this choice helps weave the new facilities into the region’s cultural fabric, ensuring they are seen as community assets rather than elite, inaccessible spaces.
List of Space Labs:
- Chino Basumatary Memorial Space Lab: Sidli-Kashikotra HS School (Chirang)
- Mathias Tudu Memorial Space Lab: Grahampur HS School (Kokrajhar)
- Sumilal Narzary Memorial Space Lab: Tipkai HS School (Kokrajhar)
- Brajendra Kumar Brahma Space Lab: Kokrajhar HS School (Kokrajhar)
- Marjit Brahma Memorial Space Lab: Kachugaon High School (Kokrajhar)
- Jogen Basumatary Memorial Space Lab: Basugaon HS School (Chirang)
- Sanjarang Lakeswar Brahma Memorial Space Lab: Bijni Bandhab HS School (Chirang)
- Mohendra Narzary Memorial Space Lab: Amguri HS School (Chirang)
- Bijendra Wary Memorial Space Lab: Runikata HS School (Chirang)
- Nilesh M Desai Memorial Space Lab: Barama Girls High School (Baksa)
- Dharanidhar Wary Memorial Space Lab: Salbari High School (Baksa)
- Haladhar Ujir Memorial Space Lab: Talumpur HS School (Tamulpur)
- Doleswar Boro Memorial Space Lab: Udalguri HS School (Udalguri)
- Amrit Chandra Kachari Memorial Space Lab: Khoirabari HS School (Udalguri)
- Baliram Boro Memorial Space Lab: Harisinga HS School (Udalguri)
What students get inside a Space Lab
The Space Labs are designed for tactile learning. Instead of limiting astronomy and rocketry to textbook diagrams, the rooms are fitted with optical telescopes for planetary observation, scaled models of PSLV/GSLV launchers, CanSat-style payload kits for simulated launches, and microcontroller-based experiments that cover sensors, propulsion basics, and telemetry.
ISRO-aligned content allows teachers to connect India’s recent missions to classroom exercises. The students can plan a mock lunar observation campaign after hearing about Chandrayaan instrumentation, or replicate payload integration steps using small kits.
The Bodoland Space Education Programme also invests in teacher capacity. As the Space Labs arrive, partner trainers conduct boot camps for science teachers, demonstrating how to run rocket-building workshops safely, align experiments to the state syllabus, and use observation logs to evaluate learning outcomes.
The pedagogic goal is to convert a once-a-year “science fair” mindset into weekly lab work, club meets, and field observations under the night sky.
Why now ?
Space education is a key part of the BTR’s broader strategy to improve science learning and address historical inequalities in the region’s schooling. The government’s comprehensive response to these academic disparities includes infrastructure upgrades, school adoption programs, expansion of universities, establishment of smart labs and now the new space labs.
In early August, Bodoland University also announced new infrastructure in Udalguri under the “Smart Bodoland” vision, which aims to provide both access and high-quality education.
From classroom to launchpad
The BTR model could seed a pipeline from school clubs to collegiate innovation hubs and internships at national facilities. The Bodoland Space Education Programme is set to put the region’s students on a national stage. The labs’ current equipment—including CanSats, basic avionics, and night-sky observation tools—already provides the core of hands-on, “mission-style” learning.
Early impact and participation
Vyomika Space Academy has stated that over 3,000 tribal students from BTR have already engaged with its space-education programming—an indicator that the labs are not lying idle.
District-level events, including National Space Day activities inside the labs, show students building water-propelled rockets, crafting payload enclosures, and explaining orbital concepts in Assamese, Bodo and English to visiting officials and parents.
These public demonstrations are central to the programme’s community ethos: they turn school science into a spectacle of possibility for younger children and a point of pride for towns that host a lab.
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When BTR leaders say the region now celebrates 15 School Space Labs, the first network of its kind in government schools anywhere in the Northeast, they are staking a claim that blends symbolism with strategy.
For a region long typecast by its challenges, the image of teenagers in Bijni or Sidli aligning telescopes and debugging microcontrollers is more than a feel-good photo.
It is a practical bet that the route to opportunity in 2030s India will run through labs of this kind, ensuring that Bodoland’s students are at the forefront.
