Assam sets up committee to provincialize schools & colleges in BTR as per provision of 'Accord'

Guwahati: In continuance of the initiative to implement the core tenets of the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) signed between the Centre and Bodo stakeholders, the Assam Government has constituted a 6-member committee to provincialize schools in the region.

The committee shall be chaired by R.C. Jain, the Chairman of the Borad of Secondary Education, Assam, and will have the Director of Higher Education in Assam, the Director of Secondary Education in Assam, the Director of Elementary Education in Assam, the Director of Bodo and Other Tribal languages, and the Senior Financial Adviser of the Education Department as its members.

As per a government order issued by Kalyan Chakravarthy, Principal Secretary to the Government's Secondary Education department, the committee shall suggest measures to provincialize schools and colleges in the BTAD region. This committee shall also suggest measures to provincialize Bodo medium schools located outside the BTAD region.

The committee will examine the necessary amendments to be made in the present provincialization Act so as to give a special preference to the schools in the Sixth Scheduled areas in the state. It will also examine the necessary amendments to be made in the present provincialization Act so as to give a special preference to the Bodo medium schools outside the 6th Scheduled areas of the state.

Provincialization of schools and colleges in the Bodo-dominated belt of Assam has been a long-standing demand of the All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU). The influential student body has urged State Education Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma to introduce the Science stream in 12 colleges, mostly in the BTC region. The body has also sought the provincialization 1,021 venture LP, UP and HE Schools across BTC and 46 colleges.

It needs mention here that Pramod Boro, the former President of the apex student body, was one of the key signatories of the Bodo accord on January 27, 2020.

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