Guwahati: The Board of Secondary Education Assam (SEBA) has issued guidelines for teaching the Assamese language in schools of Assam. This has been done as per provisions of the Assamese Language Learning Act, 2020 to make Assamese learning mandatory in schools under SEBA.
According to the guidelines, the Assamese language will be made a compulsory subject from Class IX (9) registration starting in 2021.
However, schools in the 6th Scheduled areas, Barak Valley, and Bodo medium schools have been kept out of this mandatory clause.
But students in schools in these areas will get the option to select the Assamese language as an elective subject to obtaining a proficiency certificate as an incentive.
SEBA has given options to students to opt for Assamese as a subject. As per the first option, any student not opting for Assamese as Modern Indian Language (MIL), can choose Assamese (E) as an 'elective subject.' In such a case, the total number of subjects for such students will be six subjects.
Currently, there are 11 MIL subjects under SEBA, and 31 subjects are under the elective subjects list. For the students who neither opt for Assamese as MIL nor takes Assamese (Elective) as an 'elective subject,' there is another option. They can select Assamese (Elective) as an additional subject. They will have to appear for seven papers instead of six papers as the additional paper would be of total 100 marks.
The Board notification stated that the marks obtained in the additional seventh paper will not be counted for merit purposes but will be shown separately in the marks sheet. Also, the notification stated that it will be mandatory for the student to appear in the Assamese (Elective) examination to qualify in the HSLC examination.
Moreover, if any student of the 6th Scheduled Areas and Barak Valley and the Bodo medium schools, select MIL subject other than Assamese, they will get the option for selecting the additional seventh paper of Assamese (E), which will only be optional for them.