Kokrajhar: The All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) expressed serious concern over the delay in supply of free textbooks for Bodo medium students before the new academic session which is to start from January 1, 2020.
In an exclusive interaction with EastMojo on Saturday, ABSU education secretary Kastom Basumatary said that even though the state government and education department have been drumming for quality educational environment in the state, the students’ communities are deprived from getting textbooks due to the insincerity of the department concerned and the government. He said that the new academic session is starting from January 1, 2020, but distribution of the textbooks has been delayed so far.
He said that ABSU is concerned about the delay in supply of the free textbooks for Bodo medium students before the new academic session starts. For instance, this is not the first time that it has happened, this has been happening every year. It hampers the right to quality education among the Bodo-medium students, Basumatary added.
He had alleged that the state government had given a commitment to supply free textbooks before beginning of the new academic session. But the state should be responsible to ensure fundamental right education and supply of the free textbook as soon as possible and also to implement every necessity for the students in the school curriculum on time.
Further, such repetition or failure by the state government would be discriminatory towards the Bodo-medium education in Assam and will bring threat towards formal learning and development of the downtrodden tribes of the Bodos.
Basumatary told that there is still only 55% availability of textbooks in Kokrajhar district, 25% available in Chirang, 40% in Baksa and 41% availability of textbooks in Udalguri district.
He accused that the government has not been giving due respect to the Bodo medium education as students in the state are facing hardships while pursuing their studies. He has urged upon the state government to facilitate proper distribution of textbooks on due time and maintain healthy educational environment among the students.
He said that the ABSU has demanded for the immediate supply of the textbooks in Bodo medium schools across the state within a week before new academic session gets started.
He also warned to take protest against the state and all the stakeholders on the failure of such commitment.
“Bodo medium students every year face textbooks crisis in the state. The students always face scarcities of textbooks as the education department and the state government never think about welfare,” Basumatary added.
