ABSU felicitates top 10 Bodo medium students

Our Correspondent

KOKRAJHAR, June 4: The All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) on Monday felicitated the top 10 Bodo medium students who excelled in the 2018 HSLC examination with highest marks and conferred the 13th Kamal Kumar Brahma Derhasat Bantha at a felicitation ceremony held at the Bodofa Cultural Complex, Kokrajhar. Over 1,200 students, teachers, parents and ABSU workers attended the felicitation ceremony. The Kokrajhar district committee ABSU also felicitated the top ten students of the district in the morning at the same venue.

The students who received the Kamal Kr. Brahma Derhasat Bantha were-Raidao Basumatary of UN Academy, Tamulpur (94.16 per cent), Swrangsar Basumatary of Bathou Ashram HE School, Medaghat, Baksa (93.5 per cent), Priyam Kr. Brahma of UN Academy, Kokrajhar (92.66 per cent), Mulukma Boro of UN Academy, Kokrajhar (92.5 per cent) and others.

The chairman of the SEBA, Ramesh Chandra Jain who attended the felicitation ceremony as the chief guest felicitated the toppers by traditional aronai, citation, books and cash of Rs. 5,000 each. The president of ABSU, Promod Boro, IGP, BTC, Anurag Agrawal, president of Bodo Sahitya Sabha (BSS), Taren Boro, former Rajya Sabha MP UG Brahma and other dignitaries also felicitated the Bodo medium toppers on the occasion.

The president of the ABSU Promod Boro said the Mission Quality Education, 2007-2020 adopted by the ABSU to improve the academy of Bodo medium was being carried out for the betterment of quality of education and performance of the students from the Bodo medium schools in the State. He said only 66 Bodo medium students got first division in 2006 which worried the ABSU. Later, the student body worked for the improvement of Bodo medium education with various programmes like motivation camp, career counselling, awareness meeting, teachers’ meet and parents’ meet to bring awareness among the teachers and students, he said, adding that the overall pass percentage of Bodo medium had improved considerably and this year, as many as 1,606 Bodo medium students secured first division.

Boro said continuing the Mission Quality Education since 2007, the activities had started to reach all sections of society with special focus on students studying in Bodo medium. However, students from the Bodo medium had to face a lot of hardships due to the negligence by the Government of Assam, said Boro. Delay in supply of textbooks for Bodo medium and non-appointment of Mathematics and Sciences teachers in the Bodo medium schools are some of the reasons for the poor result of Bodo medium students, he rued. Moreover, many posts of teachers are lying vacant from primary to high school level which makes it very difficult for students from Bodo medium schools to perform well.

The ABSU sent a strong message to the State government to provide more support for quality education and better performance of Bodo medium students in the State. The union urged the government to consider separate Directorate for Bodo medium in Assam and to start selection of top 10 students from Bodo medium separately under the State government in order to encourage the vernacular medium students.

In his speech as chief guest, the chairman of SEBA, Ramesh Chandra Jain said the board had been trying to solve the problems of Bodo medium. Lauding the initiatives of the ABSU to improve Bodo medium education through various programmes, he said there had been some errors in setting question papers or translation work of Bodo medium but after appointing a new Bodo Academic officer in the SEBA for Bodo medium in consultation with BSS, the errors had reduced. Admitting some problems in Bodo medium, he said 124 schools across Assam that showed poor result in the HSLC examination last year were strictly monitored through the monitoring committee under SEBA and the results of these schools had improved significantly this year. The function, which was chaired by the president of the ABSU, Promod Boro, was inaugurated by the president of the Bodo Sahitya Sabha, (BSS) Taren Boro.