Free textbooks under SSA being sold in open market

UDALGURI/ GORESWAR, March 25: At a time when the school students of the region are yet to get free textbooks, reports of books being sold in the black market by a section of unscrupulous teachers have been doing the rounds.

Harisinga police outpost personnel recovered 20 bundles of textbooks meant for free distribution from a bus on way to Guwahati yesterday. One Jogesh Baishya of Khundahankara village has also been detained in this connection. Baishya later confessed that the books were procured from one Aniruddha Das, Sarba Siksha Abhijan (SSA) coordinator. The Harisinga Anchalik Committee of the All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU), Bodo Sahitya Sabha (BSS), All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) have lodged a complaint in this regard.

GORESWAR: The Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) Education department is yet to supply free textbooks to the students in Baksa district.

The ME and High Schools under Goreswar and Tamulpur Block Elementary Education Office (BEEO) have been holding regular classes since the beginning of the academic session in January, but the teachers and the students have been facing great difficulty due to lack of textbooks.

The Sarba Siksha Abhijan (SSA), which is to supply free textbooks to students across the country, has been silent over the matter of distribution of free textbooks to the students in the district, which has forced the students to suffer for many months because of cancellation of classes. Students of Bodo-medium schools are the worst sufferers as there are less Bodo textbooks than Asomiya-medium books.Though the BTC has been making tall claims about introducing revolutionary changes in the education sector and remove “stagnation of human resources”, these are yet to bore fruit. This has, undoubtedly, led to deterioration in the academic atmosphere in Bodoland, the parents and teachers lamented.

The ABSU, the AASU and the AJYCP have demanded the immediate supply of free textbooks so that the students are at least spared of the pain of having to attend classes without books.