Convention on education and democracy held
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
SILCHAR, Sept 12: The Forum for Social Harmony organized a mass convention on the ideals of education, freedom and democracy for all in the Sister Nivedita meeting hall of Women’s College of this town on Sunday. Speaking on the occasion Muzammil Ali Laskar, advocate, said, “Freedom comes first and if it is provided to all without any constraints and restraints, democracy exists in true sense. To keep the ideal of democracy alive, education has to be given priority.”
Laskar also said that the increase in the number of drop-outs over the years has been plaguing the education system. “Fincial crisis has led pupils to discontinue their studies,” he said.
Speaking about other problems related to the valley, he said, “Misappropriation of development funds has been a great problem. Various projects and schemes get stagted due to this leakage.”
“Corruption at every level has plagued the whole administrative system affecting the life of common people. Sensible citizens should come forward. Education should help people to curb and wipe off evils from the society. It is a shame that only 3.3% of the country’s GDP is contributed towards the development of education,” said Laskar.
Dipak Sengupta, teacher, Adhar Chand Higher Secondary School and also a member of Barak Upatyaka Banga Sahitya O Sanskriti Sammelan, turned over the pages of history and reminded the audiences about the importance of September 11 in the anls of history of the country.
Dr Subir Kar, former Professor, Department of Bengali, Assam University, said, “I do not get angry now. I have accepted everything. However, I feel sad to say things which need to be projected. The mistrust and corruption has reflected on our system.”
Misbahul Islam Laskar, former MLA, Borkhola, said, “Education and politics have intermingled and this is the cause behind the ills besetting the education system.”
He also said that there should be enough zest and zeal in our life to bring positive changes in the society.
A number of suggestions have been put forth for the development in all aspects.
People should be politically aware and be able to bring radical societal change. Suggestions have also been made to impart education in one’s own mother tongue and TET teachers should be trained in their mother language. Categorization in the NRC update process, as ‘OI’ and ‘NOI’, should not be encouraged. People of the valley have been suffering from a number problems and only education can provide an insight into the solutions to them. They speakers of the convention also spoke about the number of vacancies that have been lying for years in various schools. Health and education sectors have been worst hits. Budget allocation towards education sector should also be increased to 6% so that there can be mass education. The Convention has covered the wide ranges of issues plaguing this valley and created a thought process for their resolution.