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KOKRAJHAR: The All-Bodo Students Union (ABSU) staged a state-wide sit-in demonstration on Wednesday demanding immediate solution on long-pending educational issues of the Bodo medium in a decisive way and to highlight the Government of Assam’s failure to prioritize these issues.
In Kokrajhar, the protest demonstration was held at Bodofa Children’s Park in the heart of Kokrajhar town where leaders of BSS, DBHA, Boro Somaj and others also joined. The vice president of ABSU Kwrwmdao Wary led the demonstration in Kokrajhar. ABSU submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma through Kokrajhar DC after the end of the demonstration.
Talking to reporters, the vice president of ABSU Kwrwmdao Wary said ABSU carried out a state-wide 3-hours sit-in- demonstration in every district headquarters in Assam today from 11am to 2pm, during which the ABSU members and the general public strongly took part. He said despite numerous representations, dialogues with the concerned government departments and officials, and repeated assurances made by the government in various meetings and sittings, the educational demands of the Bodo community remained pending since long and have not been given due importance for which ABSU was compelled to stage the sit-in- demonstration to pressurize the government to take immediate and tangible action on their demands.
The demands of ABSU include-inclusion of Bodo as a subject in the Assam Judicial Service examinations, inclusion of Bodo as language in the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET), establishment of 35 new ‘Model High Schools’ in the Bodo medium, upgrade of 101 Bodo-medium High Schools to Higher Secondary Schools, along with the recruitment of teachers for these upgraded institutions, immediate provincialization of venture schools by implementing of clause 6.3 of the BTR Accord, recruitment and filling of the vacant Academic Officer post for the Bodo medium in the merged Assam State School Education Board (ASSEB), formerly the Board of Secondary Education Assam (SEBA), recruitment and appointment of an Academic Officer for the Bodo medium at the Assam Textbook and Publications Corporation, recruitment and appointment of a lecturer in Bodo language at the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and recruitment and appointment of a translator for the Bodo language in the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
The other demands of the ABSU includes-recruitment of two permanent teachers for each school under the Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) that offers Bodo-medium education, introduction of Bodo as a medium of instruction in the Model Degree Colleges located in Baksa, Dhudnoi and Balipara, introduction and distribution of educational books in the Bodo language at Anganwadi centres, recruitment of one Assistant Professor for each of the Bodo departments in 10 colleges located outside the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) and transfer of teachers proficient in reading and writing in Bodo, currently teaching in various schools of different mediums across Assam, to Bodo-medium schools etc.
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