ABSTRACT

This paper is an outcome of a study conducted to understand the structure and processes, existing challenges and constraints in the process of imparting quality education and politics of representation of cultural and traditional ingredients of Bodos in Bodo Medium Secondary school education especially in IX and X standards. This research attempts to understand the present curriculum structure, processes and functionary system of secondary education system of Assam with special focus to Bodo medium secondary school education. It also inquires the challenges and constraints that exist in providing quality education to the students in Bodo medium schools. It also gives special attention on the politics of representation in education system and attempts to bring into the light all kinds of politics that exists in whole education system with special focus to curriculum structuring and deciding in inclusion and exclusion history, culture, tradition etc. of different communities especially Bodo culture, tradition, oral stories, heros etc. in school textbooks of Bodo medium secondary education system.

INTRODUCTION

This study has been carried out in a small district of Assam; India called Udalguri which is situated at the foothills of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh. This study is basically on Secondary School Education of Assam with special focus on Bodo Medium School of Udalguri, Assam. Bodos have Bodo medium schools up to tenth standard, where Devanagari script is used for writing and Bodo language has been used as medium of instructions in Bodo Medium School. Despite of having Bodo medium schools, Bodos are lagging behind in the context of education in Assam. Therefore it became necessary and very important to study the problems of Bodo medium schools and its backwardness. Assam is situated in the north-eastern corner of India, Assam is a state endowed with natural resources, minerals and biodiversity. It has its own distinct culture, which is formed by assimilation of different cultures followed by the natives of the state. Being the Gateway of North-East, Assam is also considered as the educational and commercial hub of the entire region. Although it is considered as the educational hub and many students from various parts of the region visits the state, the education system here, is still not up to the mark. It needs a lot of reformation in various stages, starting from primary education system. The importance of education in the lives of people cannot be ignored as it plays a crucial role in shaping one’s personality, intellect, etc. With the beginning of modernization, education has played vital role in modernizing people of Assam and enriching the culture. Assam Topix (nd), says that the development of modern education in Assam started when the British came to power in the year 1826. In the year 1835, secondary education started in Assam, when Captain Jenkins, the then Commissioner of Assam started an English medium school in the city of Guwahati named Guwahati Seminary which is the present Cotton Collegiate School located in Panbazar. In the year 1841 another school was opened in Sivsagar, which is the present day Sivasagar Govt. Higher Secondary school. Since then, the state had made a noteworthy development in the field of education. As per the 2011 census, the literacy rate of the state was 73.18% with the urban areas showing a higher percentage of 88.88%, and the rural areas showed 70.44%. Statistically, males and females had a discrepancy in their literacy rates; however, the urban females at 67.27% are much higher than the all India female literacy rate that is 65.46%.Education plays an essential role in the progress of an individual

Udalguri at Glance

Udalguri district is one of the 33 districts of Assam state in north-eastern India. Udalguri town is the head quarter of the district. The name of the district is derived from its headquarters, Udalguri. There are three traditions regarding the etymology of Udalguri. According to one tradition, the name is derived from Odal tree and Guri meaning roots or surrounding and it was named because originally the town developed around an Odal tree. According to another tradition, this town derived its name because this place was originally a hermitage of sage Uddalaka. According to the third tradition, the name is derived from two Bodo words Ordla meaning wide and spacious and Gundri meaning powered object. This district is surrounded by Bhutan and West Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh state in the north, Sonitpur district in the east, Darrang district in the South and Baksa district in the West. The area of Udalguri district is 1852.16 square kilometres. The district has two sub-divisions namely Udalguri and Bhergaon. These two sub-divisions are further divided into five revenue circles namely Udalguri, Mazbat, Harisinga, Kalaigaon and Khoirabari. This district was formed on June 14, 2004 as one of the four districts under the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC). This district was carved out by bifurcating Darrang district (Census, 2011).

The Bodos

The Bodos are an ethnic linguistic community, early settlers of Assam in the Northeast part of India. According to the 2011 census, there are nearly 2 million Bodos in Assam which forms 5.5% of the total population in the state. Bodos belong to a larger group of ethnicity called the Bodo-Kachari. The Bodos are recognized as a plains tribe in the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. Udalguri, Chirang, Kokrajhar and Baksa are considered the centre of the Bodos. The Bodos represents one of the largest of the 18 ethnic sub-groups within the Bodo-Kacharis group, first classified in the 19th century. Bodos have settled in most areas of North-East India, and parts of Nepal and Bangladesh. Among the 18 groups mentioned by Endle, the Mech in Western Assam, the Bodos in central Assam, the Dimasa and Hojai to the north of Cachar Hills, and the Sonowal and Thengal in the eastern part of the Brahmaputra river are closely related. The others have been either Hinduized for example Koch, Sarania, or have developed separate identities for example Garo. The Bodos represent one of the largest ethnic and linguistic groups of the Brahmaputra valley. Typical Bodo last names or surname are Basumatary, Narzary, Bodosa, Boro, Brahma, Bwiswmuthiary, Dwimary, Goyary, Borgayari, Islary, Ishwary, Khakhlary, Mwshahary, Owary, Sargwary/Sargiary, Ramsiary, Sibigry, Kolary, Sompramary and Wary. The 1971 census report indicated Bodos being the 8th largest scheduled-tribe (ST) group in India. Bodo pronounced as Boro is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by the Bodo people of north-eastern India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The language is one of the official languages of the Indian state of Assam, and is one of 22 scheduled languages given a special constitutional status in India. Bodo language, a branch of the Tibeto- Burman family of language is a rich language. It is a major language of the Bodo group under the Assam-Burmese group of language. It shares some common features in respect of vocabulary, phonology, morphology and syntax with other sister languages of the Bodo group. The Bodo language is derived from Tibeto-Burmese family of languages. Although Roman script and Assamese script were used in the past, but few decades back, Bodos adopted the Devanagari script. According to some scholars, the Bodo language had a script of its own called Deodhai. The language is officially written using the Devanagari script, although it also has a long history of using the Roman script. Some researchers have suggested that the language originally used a now- lost script called Deodhai. In another side, still now some intellectual Bodo people want to say that Roman Script would be more appropriate script for the Bodo language. Very early on, Bodos may have introduced rice cultivation, tea plantation, pig and poultry farming, and silkworm rearing in the North East India.

Bodo Medium School

On November 16, 1952, the Bodo Sahitya Sabha, the vanguard of Bodo language and literature, was founded at Basugaon, in the district of Kokrajhar,at present Chirang distrcit of Assam consisting of representatives of Assam, West Bengal, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Nepal in abroad. After India obtained independence, a critical mass of Bodo intellectuals realized the need for preservation of Bodo language. Many early Bodo authors studied in schools and colleges, where medium of instruction was either Assamese or Bengali. Bodo intellectuals felt that Bodo language must be preserved and developed at par with Assamese and Bangla languages. Bodo people realized very late that the education was the key component to the overall development of Bodo people and their language. After prolonged struggle and determination of the Bodo Sahitya Sabha (Bodo Literary Organization), the Bodo language was introduced as a medium of instruction at primary level in 1963 and then at secondary level in 1968. Bodo language and literature has been recognized as one of the Modern Indian Languages (MIL) in Guwahati, Dibrugarh and North-Eastern Hill Universities. In 1985, Bodo has been recognized as an associated state official language of Assam. Now the language has attained a position of pride with the opening of the Post- Graduate Courses in Bodo language and literature in the University of Guwahati in 1996. Moreover,under the aegis of the commission for Scientific and Technical terminology, HRD Ministry, the Govt. of India, the Bodo Sahitya Sabha is preparing more than forty thousand scientific and technical terms in Bodo language. Further, it is promised, the Sahitya Academy would accord Bhasa Sonman(respect for language) to the Bodo language and literature as an initial token of full-fledged recognition to it. Furthermore, the Govt. of India, in principle, has recognized the necessity of inclusion of the Bodo language and literature in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India. Moreover the Bodo Sahitya Sabha has to its credit a large number of books on prose, poetry, drama, short story, novel, biography, travelogue, children’s literature and criticism. The Bodo-Kacharis have their language with dialects. But still then, it has been found that they use Assamese as a subsidiary language besides their own dialects of the Bodo language in the entire northern region of the Brahmaputra Valley. It is also to be noted that in many a places the mother tongue of the Bodo-Kacharis who have become Saranias is Assamese. A form of Bodo dialect is used by them at home and among themselves in the rural context. Though at one time, the dialects of Bodo were used by the Bodo-Kacharis at home and among themselves, now it has been elevated to the level of a language through the process of culture and research by some enthusiastic Bodo-Kacharis. It is quite heartening that the Bodo language has been recognized as the medium of instruction from the Primary to Secondary School level by the Government of Assam. It is also recognized by the University of Guwahati as one of the Modern Indian Languages up to the Postgraduate and Mphil-Phd. Dr.P.C Bhattacharya has given an idea about the Bodo language as follows “The Boro (Bodo) language belongs to the western branch of Barish section under Baric division of the Sino- Tibetan family, as per the classification given by Robert Shafer. The Linguistic Survey of India describes the Bodo or the Bodo-Kacharis as a member of the Boro (Bodo) sub-section under the Assam- Burma group of the Tibeto-Burman branch of Sino- Tibetan or Tibeto-Chinese speech family. The Bodo speaking areas of Assam at present are stretching from Dhubri in the west to Sadiya in the east. In Arunachal, Tripura and Nagaland also we have a small number of the Bodo-Kachari people. In Jalpaiguri and other adjacent districts of Bengal, the Bodos are known as Mech. The Bodo language of Assam has at least four clear-cut dialect areas with a sufficient number of dialectal variations; these may be called north-western, south-western, north-central and southern dialect areas with phonological, morphological and glossarial differences. The Bodo language does not have an inherited script. It was believed that in olden days there was a kind of Deodhai script among the Bodo- Kacharis. But at present this kind of Deodhai script is not found to be in vogue. Late Bishnu Prasad Rabha, a poet and litterateur, gathered a few specimens of Deodhai alphabets from an informant of Dimapur area which was noted for the Kachari reign and remains representing the art and architecture. At present the Bodos make use of the Devanagari script for writings.

The Bodo-Christians only usually write their textbooks and religious matters in the medium of Roman scripts; the other Bodos forming a clear majority write in the Devanagari scripts. The Bodo language has been introduced as a medium of instruction in the Bodo predominant Primary Schools of the Kokrajhar Sub-Division in the District of Goalpara in 1963. The literacy is slowly but steadily increasing. In 1954, there were eighty seven graduates of Arts, Science, Medicine and Engineering among the Bodos. The Bodo literature consists of the vast amount of oral literature including folk-songs, folk-tales, ballads and proverbs and of the considerable amount of written and published literature in Assamese and Roman scripts. The published literature comprises books relating to prayers and songs, poems, stories on the one hand and journals and magazines with different types of prose and verse on the other hand.

The Bodo Sahitya Sabha is regarded as an arch of an era in the history of language. The Bodo language has been recognised as the Modern Indian Language by the Guwauhati University on the 26th May, 1977. No doubt, this has paved the way for the Bodo language towards its highest progress in the days to come. The Bodo language is known to have no inherited script. Assamese as well as Roman scripts were used for writing and publication of books, journals, magazines and other literature in Bodo language. But in 1974, the Bodo Sahitya Sabha decided in favour of adoption and introduction of Roman script for the Bodo language in all spheres, and started a movement demanding recognition of Roman script for Bodo language. At last, the Bodo Sahitya Sabha, however, at the intervention of the Central Government, had to adopt Devanagari script for Bodo language in 1975, which was implemented in the Primary Schools from the year 1976.

Secondary Education

In Assam secondary education is basically from 9th standard to 12th standard and it is divided into two categories such as High school and Higher Secondary School. High school means a school or department of a school giving in secondary education and preparing students for matriculation or high school leaving certificate. Higher secondary school means a school or department of a school giving instruction in secondary education and preparing students for higher secondary school leaving certificate examination.

Prior to the British rule, there was no such formal system of secondary education in India. It was the minutes submitted by Lord Macaulay and subsequent resolutions passed by the Governor General Lord William Bentinck in 1835 that led to the establishment of schools teaching western literature and science. Gradually western education became more popular as educated Indians were offered high posts under the Government. In Assam secondary education was started in the year 1835. At that time administrative Headquarter of East India Company was in Calcutta and Assam was a part of Bengal. As per the recommendations of the General Committee of Public Instruction, the Commissioner of Assam, Captain Jenkins started an English school at Guwahati in 1835. This school was known as Guwahati Seminari which is the present Cotton Collegiate School in Panbazar. In 1841 another high school was established in Sibsagar which is presently known as Sibsagar Govt. Higher Secondary school. In the history of Indian Education Wood’s Despatch holds a unique position. It has contributed much in organizing the present education system in India. As per the recommendation of Wood’s Despatch in 1854, Department of Education was created in each province. In Assam such a Department of Education was created in 1874 when Assam was separated from Bengal. A Director of Public Instruction was appointed. The environment for development of education in Assam was created only after the creation of a separate Department under the Director of Public Instruction. In 1882 Hunter Commission made important recommendations on secondary education. The commission recommended that Government should gradually withdraw from secondary education leaving the responsibility to private enterprise. In each district there should be one Govt. high school as a model to the private schools. The Government should sanction grants in aid to private bodies for expansion of secondary education. In Assam these proposals could not be implemented, as the Government was not ready to sanction financial assistance to the private bodies. Consequently, the growth of secondary education was very slow. During 1899 – 1900, the total number of high schools in Assam was only 20. Lord Curzon’s Policy in 1905 attached the administration of Assam with East Bengal. Secondary education in Assam received a great setback due to the policy of control adopted by Lord Curzon. The Govt. of India Act of 1919 introduced the system of Diarchy in the administrative field. Under this system, State Governments were given freedom in matters of Education. This administrative reform helped in the expansion of secondary education in Assam. Secondary education in Assam made considerable progress during 1912 – 1947 when the number of Middle English schools and Middle Vernacular schools increased to 742 and the number of High schools increased to 191 till 1947. Secondary education in Assam made remarkable progress after independence. The Government of Assam adopted several measures for the development of secondary education. Introduction of changes in administration, revision of curriculum, change in the evaluation system, establishment of different types of schools are some of the important measures adopted in the field of secondary education. The recommendations of the Mudaliar Commission (1952 – 53), the Kothari Commission (1964 – 66) appointed by the Govt. of India, the National Education Policy, 1986 made tremendous contributions to the development of secondary education in Assam after a long period of agitation by thousands of people of Assam, Guwahati University was established on 26th January 1948. As already discussed, the Matriculation examination was conducted by Calcutta University as the High schools in Assam were affiliated to Calcutta University before independence. In 1948, Guwahati University was established. Since then the responsibility to control the academic matters in secondary stage was entrusted to Guwahati University. The change of responsibility to control the Matriculation Examination from Calcutta University to Guwahati University resulted in the rapid growth of secondary education in Assam.

Although, there have been several remarkable developments in the education system of Assam since pre-independence era, some reforms are still needed as it is still not up to-date. Most importantly, the education system of the state is not systematic and lacks in many aspects. There are very few qualified teachers in the primary and secondary level and since this level forms the basis of strong education, Government should appoint qualified teachers, who are well trained. Another significant thing that needs reformation is the infrastructure of schools and colleges. The major fault lies in the infrastructure, which is not strong enough for implication of the necessary reforms. Next important reform that needs to be made is that job-oriented courses should be introduced to put an end to the long persisting unemployment problem in the state. In addition to these, modern-day techniques should be employed along with cultural knowledge and background of the student to impart education to students in schools and colleges that students can cope up in this competitive globalized world.

Educational Administration System of Assam

The Board of Secondary Education Assam commonly known as SEBA is the state level authority for conducting examinations and providing assurance for the quality of education imparted in schools within Assam, India that are affiliated to it. High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) is the award given through the authority of this board to the students who have passed the HSLC examination successfully. The jurisdiction of SEBA was the territory of the erstwhile State of Assam comprising the entire North East region of the country. With the creation of the States Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh out of Assam at different times and with the establishment of their separate Boards of School Education, the jurisdiction of SEBA got reduced. Presently the territory of the State of Assam is the jurisdiction of the SEBA.

The Assam state textbook production and publication corporation limited was incorporated in the year 1972 by government of Assam. The sequel of administration measures taken both by the government of India and government of Assam that paved the way for formation of the corporation need to be mentioned to get a perspective of the functioning of the corporation. Prior to 1950, a committee known as the central textbook committee which was attached to the office of the director of public instruction, government of Assam, used to look after all the matters relating to production of textbooks in 1950 the same was changed to Assam text book committee with 10 members nominated by the government of Assam. In the year, 1968, the government of Assam reconstituted the said committee as board of textbooks production and research. The said board was again converted into the present corporation by the notification dated 26th July, 1972.

Though the school education is a state subject, the Ministry of Education, Government of India, was interested to improve the quality of education all over India. Accordingly, by a resolution dated 31st December, 1968, by the Ministry of Education, Government of India and National Board of School Textbooks was established under the chairmanship of the Union Minister of Education. All Education Ministers of the States were also made members of the Board. The problems of school textbooks were discussed in the meeting of the national Integration Council, held at Srinagar in June, 1968. The Council attached great significance to the proper use of textbooks for purposes of national integration. It was of the views that education from the primary to the postgraduate leave should be reoriented (a) to serve the purpose the creating a sense of Indian unity and solidarity, (b) to inculcate faith in the basic postulates of Indian democracy and (c) to help the national to create a modern society. It also recommended that the State Government should create appropriate machinery at the State level for using then effectively for purposes of national integration in particular and that a National Board of School text Books which would coordinate the efforts of the State Government should be set up by the Government of India.

The National Board of school Textbooks in its first meeting held on 5th April, 1969, recommended that the textbooks for all school stage up to Class X should be produced under the control and supervision of the State Governments which will make it to improve the quality and reduce costs. The sequel of measures mentioned above led to the formation of the Assam State Textbooks Production and Publication Corporation Limited in 1972. It has been functioning under the direct control of the Department of Education, Government of Assam. All policy matters including pricing of textbooks need to have the approval of the Education Department, Govt. of Assam.

Though other states of the Union of India have similar organizations, the activities of this corporation are highly complex. Assam is, in fact, a miniscule India displaying the diversities of the whole country. The Corporation needs to cater to the needs of many small and large ethnic groups inhabiting in the state and that is why textbooks in more than 17 languages need to be published by the Corporation. Out of these, 8 languages namely Assamese, Bodo, Bengali, Manipuri, Garo, Karbi, Hmar and English are medium of instruction and remaining languages are taught as subjects. Since its incorporation in 1972, the corporation has been rendering best possible service in the field of primary and secondary education. After the implementation of Right to Education Act in the state of Assam, the corporation has been printing and distributing free textbooks up to class VIII on behalf of the Assam Sarba Siksha Abhiyan Mission. Textbooks for 9th and 10th standards are also published by the corporation and sold through registered vendors in the whole state. The Education Department, Govt. of Assam; the Board of Secondary Education, Assam; the State Council for Educational Research and Training, Assam and Assam Sarba Siksha Abhiyan Mission need to work hand in hand with the corporation in implementing all the educational schemes, pertaining especially to school textbooks, of the Govt. of Assam.

Following are the administration structure of elementary education and secondary education of Assam. But in this paper only administration structure of the secondary education would be discussed in details.

Administration structure of Elementary education

1. General body (president-chief minister)

2. Executive committee (chairman-chief secretary)

3. Education secretary-state mission (director)

4. State project coordinator

5. Block resource centres

6. Cluster resource centres

7. Village education committees

8. School management committees

9. Parents-teachers associations

Administrative structure of secondary education

1. Education ministry (chairman- Education minister)

2. Directorate (chairman- Director of directorate

3. SEBA (Chairman of SEBA)

4. District education council (Inspector of schools)

5. School (Headmaster of school)

6. School committee (President of the committee)

Education Ministry of State

The ministry of education is the highest authority in secondary education in the state of Assam. University Grant Commission (UGC) does not control over school education and therefore all the power over school education lies on education ministry of state. Assam State Ministry of education has the power and authority to introduce new laws and schemes in the school, beginning from primary school to secondary school. There are various departments within education department who are working under education ministry for the growth and development of school education in the state. And if certain departments’ educational institutions want to bring some kind of structural or rules and regulation changes in the state then they have to get an approval or consent from education ministry of the state. State government is the responsible for funding educational departments for the activities of improving the quality of education, making new infrastructures and many other development works related to school education in the state. The government fund directly for certain educational departments but funding for schools are done through different channels like Rashtriya Madhyamik Abhiyan, Sarva shiksha Abhiyan Mission, Tribal Sub-plan etc.

The interventions on education of government in Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) are quite different within the state. The control of government over educational institution in BTC is on sharing basis between state government and council government of BTC. Basically, the state government of Assam releases the share of amount which BTC should get from state government for the development projects of education institutions. Therefore educational development projects are undertaken and carried out by the council government. All the mediums under state board are taken care of by the state government and council government in BTC. There are different medium schools in Assam like Assamese Medium, Bodo Medium, English Medium, Hindi Medium etc. But all the medium of schools under one administration through different educational governing bodies like directorate, SEBA etc. In the context of administration, it has nothing to do with medium of school rather affiliation of the school plays key role. All the schools of various mediums in the state which are affiliated to state board are taken care by the state government and its governing body. There are also schools which are affiliated to central board and other boards, they do not get funding from the ministry of education in the state. But when it comes to the government funding for the schools, only provincialized schools receive the fundings and venture or private schools have to manage themselves or depend on donors. Therefore infrastructure of government schools is better than private or venture schools besides missionary schools.

The Directorate

The directorate is the second highest educational governing body in school education of the state of Assam. The directorate works very closely with government, Board of Secondary Education Assam (SEBA), Assam state educational research and training (ASERT) and few other agencies or departments which are working on state school education. There are two directorates in the state for school education; they are directorate for elementary education and directorate of secondary education. The directorate of elementary education covers from class I to class VIII and works to improve various aspects of elementary education. And directorate of secondary education covers from 9th standard to 12th standards and works to improve various aspects of secondary school education. It is the highest school governing body in the state. There are various different medium of schools in the state but they are held under one umbrella through governing body like directorate. Though there are various different medium of schools like Assamese Medium, Bodo Medium, English Medium, Hindi Medium etc. but content of the subjects are all similar besides Modern Indian Language (MIL).

The SEBA

The Assam Secondary Education Act, 1961 (Assam Act, XXV of 1961) was passed to provide for the establishment of a Board of Secondary Education to regulate, supervise and develop Secondary Education in the State of Assam. The Act came into force with effect from 29 January 1962 with the publication of Government of Assam, Education Department Notification no. 159/61/37 dated 29/1/1962. Thus the Board of Secondary Education, Assam, popularly known as SEBA came into existence on 14 March 1962. It started functioning with the conduct of 11 year H.S.S.L.C. Examination of 1962. Under the provisions of the Act the Govt. of Assam constituted the Board with Sri S.C. Rajkhowa, D.P.I., Assam as Chairman and Md. N. Islam, Inspector of Schools for Central Assam Circle as Secretary.

SEBA plays the most important role when it comes to secondary education in Assam. Though the ministry of education in state and the directorate are higher governing bodies in the state yet most of the rules and regulations for the schools are formulated by SEBA with the approval of the government. SEBA makes rules and regulations for all the schools affiliated to it for the administrative purpose irrespective of mediums. SEBA also prepares books, curriculum, syllabus, examination calendar, and academic calendar; admit card, mark sheet, registration card, certificates, results etc. for secondary schools. There are many mediums of schools in Assam like Assamese Medium, Bodo Medium, English Medium, Hindi Medium, Bengali Medium etc. and Madrassa but are controlled by SEBA under one umbrella. The Assam Secondary Education Act, 1961 clearly states that “it shall be the duty of the chairman of SEBA to see that the provision of this act and the regulations made under it are faithfully observed, and the decision of the board are duly implemented and he shall have all powers necessary for this purpose”. The chairman has been given power to convene meeting of board through this act. when any emergency arising out of administrative business of the board requires, in the opinion of the chairman shall take such action as he deems necessary and report his action to the board at its next meeting and the chairman shall exercise such other powers may be prescribed by the regulations. The secretary of the board is the principal administrative officers and subject to the controller of the chairman as far as The Assam Secondary Education Act, 1961 is concerned. And the controller of examination has been given power on controlling exam related works and issues in the board. There are different committees within the board which look after the different works and issues. Following are the different committees of the board:-

a. Curriculum and syllabus committee

The curriculum and syllabus committee work on preparing for curriculum and syllabus for the secondary school education. This committee is responsible for selecting books and inclusion and exclusion of various things in the textbooks of secondary education. This committee works very closely or in collaboration with Assam state educational research and training for selecting books and preparing syllabus for secondary education. Assam state educational research and training has been working for improving the education quality in the state. It is a state sponsored agency which works closely or in collaboration with SEBA for preparing books and syllabus for secondary education. Curriculum and syllabus committee and Assam state educational research and training have the power to decide when to change textbooks with the approval from government. The change of textbooks in the school education is approved by the government for the improvement of quality of education. Whereas in present times we could see that change of textbook is not for the improvement of quality of education rather commercial purpose. If textbooks do not change then students do not buy books rather pass on from one person to another to younger ones. Therefore, changing textbooks in present times is basically not for improving quality of education rather making money for the certain authors and researchers and it is affecting the quality of education at great extent.

This committee works in collaboration with Assam State Textbooks Production and Publication Corporation Limited for printing textbooks for secondary education of Assam. As we know now that this committee is the responsible for preparing and framing books and syllabus for the secondary education and therefore printing books and making books available for the students on time is also responsibility of this committee. Assam state textbook production and Publication Corporation limited works closely with government and have to print all the textbooks of schools and colleges. Therefore curriculum and syllabus committee work closely with Assam state textbooks production and Publication Corporation limited for printing books for secondary education. If, however, the Assam state textbook production and publication corporation Ltd. fails to prepare and publish textbook and supplementary books within a reasonable period, the board will have freedom to prepare and publish them through any other agencies or under its own control giving proper notice to the Assam State Textbook Production and Publication Ltd. Assam state textbooks production and publication limited distribute among its selected vendors for the sale. It is very visible that whenever textbooks change, books are not available in the market and students are unable to get certain books even after six months in the market, which really degrades the quality of education and discourages the students. The secondary school students are not given free books in the school unlike elementary education students. Therefore, they have to buy the books from the market when it is available in the market.

This committee prepare modules for teacher training and teaching methodology in the schools. An in-service teacher training is carried out through Rashtriya madhyamik abhiyan. The government school teachers get in-service training after joining as teacher. Basically training happen subject wise therefore concerned subject teachers have to go for in-service training, when training on particular subject happens. The prepared teaching methodology by SEBA or curriculum and syllabus committee has been addressed to teachers during teachers training. But many teachers complain that they are unable to follow the methodology prepared by this committee in school while teaching due to shortage of teachers and time constraints. Therefore the teachers continue to follow the traditional method of teaching in the schools where teachers come and lecture and students sit and listen the teachers. The continuation with traditional method of teaching has been affecting the quality of education since it does not allow the innovative ideas to emerge rather imposes what is written in the books.

b. Examination committee

The examination committee works on preparing academic calendar and examination calendar. The academic calendar is basically on academic sessions when to open classes and lists of holidays in the academic calendar. Examination calendar is on examination scheduled for the various exams like unit tests, half yearly exam, annual exam, pre-final exam, matriculation or HSLC exam and HSSLC exam. Examination committee also prepares question papers for matriculation or HSLC and HSSLC exams. The results and certificates of HSLC and HSSLC are prepared by the examination committee. Besides exam schedules of HSLC and HSSLC examination committee circulates the examination calendar to district education councils and district education council circulates it to schools. Unit tests are conducted by the school itself based on examination calendar circulated by SEBA. Question papers for unit tests are set by the respective class teachers but half yearly exam, annual exam and pre-final question papers are set by the district education council and distributed to schools. Results of unit tests, half yearly exams, annual exams and pre-final exams are declared by the respective schools and also mark sheet are prepared by respective schools. But the results of HSLC and HSSLC, mark sheets and certificates are prepared by SEBA and AHSEC respectively. Exam is the only mode of evaluation or assessment in school education system of Assam. Therefore various students use rote memory method in school education system. Students memorise the answers without understanding the content and climax of the study. The very reason for using rote memory method is exam is the sole mode of evaluation in school education system even today. The decisions regarding conducting exams are taken by only higher authority and grass root workers have to just execute according to the guideline of higher authority, which shows very much top-down structure system of school education system of Assam.

c. Physical education committee

The physical education committee deals with the physical health of the students and also physical health of school that is infrastructure of the school. This committee stress on healthy life of students because without good health life is incomplete. There is saying “health is wealth” and “sound body is sound mind”. Therefore stressing on healthy life of students is very important that they have sound mind. Sound body and mind always help people to do better things in lives. Another aspect of physical education is infrastructure of the school. We cannot imagine an educational institution without its infrastructure. Infrastructure plays very important role in education discourse because good infrastructure helps us to access better things including modern information technologies. Therefore this committee works for the growth and development of physical health of students, teachers and infrastructure of educational institutions.

District Education Council

The district education council is the highest educational governing body in the district and which looks after the all the schools which falls under its jurisdiction. Inspector of schools is the head of the district education council. There are different departments or committees in district education council like SEBA. District education council works for the all-round improvement and development of education in the district. Different departments of the district education council visit schools time to time for the inspection their respective areas of department. There are departments which look after infrastructure of the schools and works for improving the infrastructure condition of the school in the district, certain departments look after quality of education and works for improving the quality of education in the district etc. District education council has power to make certain kinds of rules and regulation in the micro level for the schools of district. Inspector of schools visits the schools twice or trice or four times for inspection in a year. The major aim of visiting schools is to check the functionary system of schools. When inspector of schools go to schools for inspection, IS should check the attendance of teachers and students, should speak to teachers and students both to understand the problems and challenges and also need to observe infrastructure very closely other than discussing with teachers. But when IS goes to schools for visiting then IS does not do proper inspection and take bribe from the schools atmany a times which is really leading to the degradation of quality of education in the district.

The School

School is the place or institution where students come to receive or acquire knowledge. The headmaster or principal is the all in all in the school and he has the power to make certain rules and regulations for smooth functioning and disciplinary actions of their school. To run the school smoothly or provide quality education to the student, it requires infrastructure, well qualified teachers, finance, good number of teachers. Without infrastructure we cannot imagine education and with poor infrastructure condition expecting to provide quality education is almost impossible. If infrastructure is poor condition then we cannot expect or imagine having access to modern information technologies which is very much important in acquiring quality education in this globalized world. Teachers are the centre stage of quality in the discourse of education. Education trickles down from teachers to students in the schools. Therefore we should have well qualified and trained teachers who are having lots of knowledge and ideas to give quality education to the students. Where there are no well qualified and trained teachers, we cannot expect to acquire quality education from them because they do not have enough knowledge and ideas to give quality education to the students. Therefore it is very important to have quality teachers to improve the quality of education through their innovative ideas and knowledge. Finance is a very important aspect of providing quality education or improving the quality of education. Schools need finance to build better infrastructure, buying required equipment for experimentations, organizing workshops, taking students for exposure programs and many other extra-curricular activities. Without having enough financial assistance, it is wrong to imagine acquiring quality education from a school. Financial assistance has become huge hindrance for venture or private schools in rural areas. The government or provincialized schools get financial assistance for building infrastructure, buying equipments for experimentation, maintenance etc., whereas private schools do not get any financial assistance from government, therefore they have to depend on themselves or depend on donors to sustain the school. The quality of education in private schools besides missionary schools is very pathetic due to lack of financial assistance. But quality of education in government schools are pathetic in rural areas despite getting financial assistance from government. There must be enough teachers because unbalanced teacher-students ratio degrades the quality of education. There cannot be quality education without having enough numbers of teachers. This aspect is very disheartening in the rural schools because there are many vacant posts which have led to unbalanced teacher-students ratio and these are really impacting the quality of education.

School Committee

There is school committee in every school for better administration. The president of the school committee is head of school committee and various times headmaster is the person who is above everyone in the schools and maximum decision is taken by headmaster in school committee. The school committee should call for review meeting quarterly with teachers, students and parents. The role of school committee is the keep close watch on the functioning of the school and its performance. Calling for review meeting is very important because it helps teachers, students and parents to know that whether teachers are teaching well or not, whether students are doing well or not. The school committee holding review meeting helps to understand the performance of the schools. The committee also should look into infrastructure, students’ result and also they should hold student and parents meeting to let the parents know regarding schools and students’ performance and also necessary steps need to be taken. The school committee supposes to hold review meeting once in every three months but they hold once after six months. Thus the school committee has not done enough from their part for the progress and development of the school and also providing quality education to the students. School committee is not committed to their work for the development and growth of the school and its students. Therefore lack of participatory attitude of school committee has not created any impact or major role in school for better administration. Many school teachers complained that school committee is not active and committed to their work and they do not care regarding students’ performance and disciplinary action and other things besides administrative. Certain times they come and discuss with the principal of the schools and do certain necessary things for the schools as far as school committee’s is role is concerned. Therefore it has not made any positive impact in improving quality education and making the administration system better.

CONSTRAINTS AND CHALLENGES

India is the largest democracy with remarkable diversity among its population of 1.2 billion which makes up about 17% of the world’s population. Almost 70% of Indian population is rural. The adult literacy rate stands at about 60% and this is significantly lower in women and minorities. Education in India comprises of government, government aided and private institutions of which nearly 40% are government. With the population growth rate of 1.5%, there is tremendous pressure on the education system to provide quality education at affordable price and improve the literacy rate. Educational research too has, for long, held the view that poverty essentially acts as a barrier to schooling. Issues related to inequity, exclusion and inclusion in education have been examined; but very little attention is paid to the processes that influence teaching and learning in schools where children of the marginalised study. It is often assumed that provisioning of education enables poor children to attend school, learn and develop capacities and skills. This however has not been the case. Educational policy initiatives have continued to pay limited attention to the school and the classroom where capabilities are assumed to be developed and honed. Several testing initiatives across the country have demonstrated consistently poor performance of elementary school children in basic literacy and numeracy skills. It can therefore be argued that provisioning alone, without adequate engagement with the underlying processes of education that may foster or create further disadvantage, proves to be an ineffective instrument of reducing poverty. This calls attention to the longstanding need for poverty and education researchers to work together to re-examine the relationship between poverty and education.

According to respondents quality education means people should be able to earn livelihood for their survival and better living standard and also perfectionism should be achieved at certain extent, good or expert in every aspect besides study they should be good in character, moral values, and various extra curriculum activities as well. The quality education is basically meritorious, morally adjustability, etc. Medium of school has nothing to with the quality education and in each and every medium we can get quality of education. But problems lies when we talk about necessary require things in the process of providing quality education. The infrastructure of Bodo medium schools are at pathetic condition in various times and also modern technologies are not there due to which students cannot access quality education from Bodo medium schools at various times. Therefore people have the tendency to say that Bodo medium school students do not get quality education. Due to above cited problems Bodo medium school students cannot get quality education. According to respondents besides doing well in studies the students should be responsible citizens and should be able to contribute in social change that we can move forward. The quality education has not been maintained in the school due to various reasons such as social, political, economy, etc. issues. When we talk about the quality education it should be good in every aspect like infrastructure, staffs, etc. and also connected with new modern technologies etc. There should be national level trend and they are unable to avail national level trend, there are too many students because when they compare in the ratio wise it is 60:1 whereas it should be 25:1 or 30:1, the class room setting are not hygienic and proper. Government schools have more number of qualified teachers unlike private schools in rural areas especially Bodo medium schools in Udalguri, Assam. The lack of important resources like infrastructure, finance, enough human resource etc. is the greatest hurdles in providing quality education to the students. The teachers are unable to dedicate and commit in providing quality education due to various reasons such as teachers related problems, infrastructure, finance, require equipment for experimentation and modern information technologies, giving various other tasks other than teaching etc.

Poor performance in the board exam is not the problem of medium specific, but it is based on society’s environment, family background and environment, lack of consciousness among students and mass. Studying in Bodo medium school does not make the person weak or less securing marks in the exam. The language is not the issue here but the issue is the Bodo medium school textbooks that have no proper definitions for the theories and other things and also there are no reference books for the Bodo medium school students. The textbooks are translated from Assamese textbooks since directorate do not allow Bodo literary committee to publish separately for Bodos therefore lots of mistakes happens in the process of translating due which students find difficult to comprehend what is written in the textbooks. The medium is not the problem for the students being students of Bodo medium school students many are doing well but so far none of Bodo medium school students have got place in top ten or top twenty in the board exams. There is no particular factor for this reason, firstly they do not have proper infrastructure and other important things in the school and such problems leads to various other problems and also there are problem of society and family’s background and students’ dedication and commitment, hard work etc. There are various reasons for poor performance of the Bodo medium students like irregular in the class students and teachers, political, cultural, social, economic problems and infrastructure and technology.

Medium of instruction or language

Language is the medium of communication in human society and the importance of language cannot be overlooked. Though language is the medium of communication in human society but various different ethnic groups, racial group, caste group, communities etc. speak different languages. In the discourse of education only certain languages are used as medium of instruction in educational institutions. Therefore un- represented linguistic groups always face problems of language in pursuing education. Many literatures bring the languages problems of minorities and marginalized communities in the light. But in the context of Bodo medium school language is not the huge issue. In Bodo medium schools roman script is used for writing ever since Bodo Sahitya sabha accepted it in 1976 and Bodo language is used for the instruction and communication. Therefore, language or medium of instruction is not huge issue unlike linguistically unrepresented groups. Bodos also face language problems when it comes to subjects like Hindi, English and technical terms in natural sciences. Language is one of the important constraints of tribal children which prevents them access to quality education. The problem for Bodo medium is translating from Assamese medium textbooks since they are not allowed to print books directly. Basically under SEBA board all the subjects are similar though the mediums are different. MIL subject is the only different subject and the Bodo Literary committee has the right to decide on inclusion or exclusion in the Bodo MIL textbook of Bodo medium schools. Besides this the Bodo literary committee has no role on other subjects. The translation of textbooks and question papers also create problems and contribute poor performance of the students, because during translation certain problems arises on language and it makes students confused due which they are unable to answer the question properly.

The Location of the Village

The physical barrier creates a hindrance for the children of a tribal village to attend the school in a neighbouring village. Basically the tribal villages are in remote forested areas and terrains which creates problem in attending school in certain seasons especially during rainy season. The location of the village of a student has role to play in students’ academic career. At various occasion the distance of the school and the villages is very far or quite far. There are no good roads in the remote forested and terrain tribal villages. During rainy season, the condition of the roads get worsens or become completely unusable due to natural calamities. In my study I have come across that certain students have to travel eight kilometres to attend school by bicycle. Students do not face much problems when weather is good but they face lots of problems when weather is extreme hot or cold and also if it is raining. Due to weather problems students do not come for attending classes. The major problem is rainy season because heavy rain damages the roads and because it becomes huge hindrance in attending classes. Missing classes creates understanding problems among the students and teacher does not repeat what has been taught in previous classes. Thus the location of the village creates various problems in academic career of students and has become constraint and challenge in pursuing quality education.

Economic Condition

Absolute poverty poses absolute constraints on learning such aschildren are unable to attend school due to severe conditions of hunger and malnutrition. Relative poverty creates conditions where children experience multi-dimensional poverty: hunger, inadequate nutrition and ill Health; poor housing conditions, sanitation and water; and a neglected environment. Unless children have all these in equal measure, conditions of poverty impact their socio-psychological environment and therefore opportunities to learn. To begin with, the capability deprivation frame offers the possibility of developing a more nuanced understanding of how poverty may operate in the educational space. Two aspects emanating from poverty research are worth engaging with: one, that processes in the classroom and the school that promise to develop capability are often projected in an over simplistic manner, ignoring the complexities of the educational process and, two, it is assumed that enquiry into the educational process is the sole preserve of educators. Questioning this, scholars have argued that poverty research is noticeably blind to research that has consistently demonstrated how schooling is more inclined to reinforce socialisation processes rather than challenge power relations that maintain inequities in society.

The economic condition of tribal in rural areas are still very backward and needs to be done a lot for the growth and development in economic sector. The parents cannot afford the requirement things for their children at various times which discourage the children in study. Unable to meet the requirements of study leads to dropout and also discourages students which lead in poor performance. Maximum numbers of Bodo medium schools students are from economically backward or poor families due to which their parents send them to Bodo medium school without bothering quality of education since they could not afford to send their children in English medium schools where quality of education is better comparatively. It is important to send the child for tuition that they can improve their understanding and perform better in the exams etc. because the Bodo medium schools have huge number of students in the class and teachers cannot keep eye on every student whether students have understood what teacher has been taught in the class. But maximum parents cannot send their child for tuition due to financial issues.

Due to financially backward the parents cannot help the children enough financially in their study and do not know how to motivate and guide their children due to lack of knowledge and information etc. Therefore the Bodo medium schools students are unable to perform well at various times. The economic condition of parents plays a role in attendance of the students. The teachers give moral and counselling classes to the students to cope up with difficult situations. And many students become strong and really fight with the situation despite of financial crisis and try to achieve their goals. The mode of transport for students is cycle but many poor people cannot afford cycle and also many do not have umbrella to come school during rainy season etc. thus economic conditions of parents affect students attendance. The students have only a pair of uniform therefore if it gets wet then they are unable to come to school in various occasions. But it differs person to person, there are students from poor family but they attend regular classes despite of all kinds of problems and difficulties to achieve their goals, whereas there are students from well to do family who does not attend classes regularly. Therefore attending classes has very much to do with commitment, dedication and focusing on goals apart from parents’ income or economic status. Thus economic condition is contributing in degrading quality of education and has become constraint and challenge of quality education.

Attitude of the parents

Motivation, guide, care and other kinds of support are very important in child’s growth and development. Therefore parents should deal with various situations gently with love and care while dealing with children that children’s mind is not hurt. The parents should help the children best possible way in study, finance, guidance, motivation etc. Basically the children do not have much knowledge and idea regarding competitiveness of the world. Therefore parents must guide and motivate their children well that they can move through right direction and also give financial support and helping hand during study is very important. If the children do not get proper financial support, motivation and guidance then they will not know which way to walk and there is possibility of walking through the wrong direction. The financially backward of poor families and children of illiterate families hardly move ahead in the study because they cannot support their children financially or do not know how to motivate and guide their children due lack of knowledge and information etc. The parents need to take care and monitor well during their study and other aspects of their lives too. Children do not understand during their study everything well, so parents should help the child at home while studying for better understanding. The children are very playful and waste the time by playing even during study hours, so parents need to handle such situation with love and care well. Therefore it is always good to monitor and help the children at home that they study well and do their level best in their study.

As education does not yield any immediate economic return, the tribal parents prefer to engage their children in remunerative employment which supplements the family income. Certain reports shows that more than 15 lacs graduates are unemployed in Assam that it creates some kind of misunderstanding among masses that they will not get job and spending on education would be waste. Therefore certain parents are reluctant to spend money on children’s education. There are also many poor households who are struggling to afford meal twice a day. For them earning daily bread and butter for their survival is much more important than education for their children. The lack of awareness and consciousness among the parents and Bodo mass also contribute in this incompetency of Bodo students. There are aware and conscious parents too but they send their children to English medium schools where they can get good and quality education. Thus the quality of education especially Bodo medium is affected and attitude of parents have become a huge challenge in acquiring and improving quality of education.

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is very important component in providing quality education to the student and without having good infrastructure imagining improving the quality of education and providing quality education is impossible. When we look at the infrastructure of Bodo Medium schools in Assam, the condition of school infrastructure is very pathetic. When I was visiting schools in the field for my study, I could see the condition of the schools where proper infrastructure is not in place. There are certain schools which has no toilets and urinals at all in the schools. But there are also a few schools which have urinals and toilets for both the students and teachers separately. But it is not proper functional. There are also few schools which are having urinal and toilets both for students and teachers and are proper functional. Such proper functional urinal and toilets could be seen in towns or semi-urban, whereas in the villages such functional toilets and urinals are hardly visible.

The infrastructure of the government schools in rural areas is better than private schools besides certain missionary schools. A school building is made of concrete wall and floor and tin roof. Infrastructure of Christian missionary school is much better than rural government schools comparatively. But when we look at the infrastructure of other private schools and government schools comparatively, the infrastructure of government school is quite satisfactory. Through government school are concrete building but inside the school only black board, desks, benches, one chair and one table is visible, apart from this class rooms have no other facilities like electricity, fan, air condition, computer, projector, white board etc. I have come across one private school during my field study which has been established in 2008, the infrastructure condition of the school is very pathetic. It was made of tin roof and bamboo fence and also tins are having holes which gets leak while it is raining. In such a infrastructural condition providing quality is very far distance dream. There is no library in the schools but there are some books in the office but teachers do not give them to students for reading because there is no librarian to maintain records etc. Certain schools have lots of books but they are unable to display or give to the students for the study purpose due to lack of separate room for library and librarian for maintaining records, therefore the books are lying in the headmaster’s office and in common room. If there is no good infrastructure and basic necessities then providing quality education is almost impossible. Thus infrastructural issues of educational institution especially Bodo mediums in rural areas of Udalguri district, Assam are very disheartening and it becomes huge obstacle in providing quality education to the students.

Lack of Modern information technology

Modern information technologies should be very much part and parcel of present education system in this twenty first century. Without having modern information technologies; competing in this globalized world has become daydream. Therefore every school should have or should be connected to modern information technologies. But when we look at the schools in rural areas especially Bodo medium schools, we cannot even imagine having modern information technologies, where neither good infrastructure nor electricity connection exists. Bodo medium school students are not exposed to modern information technologies like computer, projector etc. Therefore imagining receiving quality education in Bodo medium schools without having any modern information technologies in place would be distant dream for the students. Lack of modern information technologies in Bodo medium schools became another huge obstacle in achieving quality education. There are a few computers in government schools provided by the government that they can give free computer education to the students in the rural area as well. But the issue is computers are only a few where in one group 15-20 students have to learn. Though school gives commuter classes thrice a week, yet all the students cannot use the computer due to ratio of computer and student. Therefore it does not make sense and cannot expect all students to learn computer where with 4-5 computers 15-20 students have to learn within 45 minutes or so.

Many schools do not have connection to electricity and therefore imagining installing modern information technology would be wrong. Modern information technologies cannot be used without electricity besides a few. During my field study I have come across that only a school has electricity connection every classrooms and office rooms which is situated to semi-urban, but in rural schools I have seen that a school has electricity connection only in staff office and computer room and classrooms are not connected to electricity. There are no laboratory and required equipment for experimentation in the school. Students have no opportunity to learn practically what they learn theoretically. It is very important to have practical experimentation to get clear ideas and knowledge what we learn theoretically from books. The basic equipment for experimentation an information technologies is not visible in the school. Therefore rural school students are deprived of important information technologies of this globalized world. Thus education provided in the rural schools cannot be considered quality education and it has affected the students tremendously.

Irregularity in payment of teachers

The teaching is a profession for the teachers whether they love the profession or not, but love of profession alone does not lead to make a person teacher. There are people who have no other alternative rather only being teacher is the option for him or her. Choosing this profession for one’s love and passion on profession is always good but love of profession alone does not sustain the person rather he or she need financial support to sustain himself or herself and to continue with the profession for the betterment of the society. Therefore, teachers need be paid salary on time to run their family smoothly and to sustain themselves. In the case of Assam school teachers are not paid their salary on regular basis. Certain times teachers have to wait for the salary for six or seven months which have huge negative impact on teachers’ personal and family life and also it affects the students. When teachers do not receive the salary for very long then they have to find other means to sustain themselves which leads to absenteeism of teachers. Therefore government should release the payment of teachers on regular basis that payment issue does not affect the students’ academic life. Irregularity in payment of teachers has also affected to a great extent the quality education.

Using teachers other than academic purpose

There are always problems of shortage of teachers in the schools and government does not recruit teachers despite of having vacant posts in the schools. Therefore a few teachers have to take up the burden of teachers of vacant posts. This has become a huge issue in school education of Assam especially Bodo mediums are affected at great extent. Despite of having such problems in educational institutions the government has been using school teachers on various other government activities besides academic purpose. Using the teachers for non-academic purposes has affected the students and quality of education tremendously. Assam government use the school teachers for non-academic purposes on various occasions like government survey, census, NRC update etc. which made the teachers to stay away from the school for quite long period of time. Using the school teachers for non-academic purposes, despite of having shortage of teachers have contributed to large extent in keeping the quality of education low. Therefore government school create separate department for these kinds of survey, census etc. that school teachers do not need to go for such activities and it does not affect the academic career of students.

Politics of dominance

There are lots of politics in formulating and structuring the curriculum of school education of Assam. Board of Secondary Education Assam (SEBA) is responsible in deciding and formulating the curriculum of secondary education of Assam. The office bearers of the SEBA are belong to dominant communities especially belong to Assamese communities which are also called Akomia and they are not letting tribal communities’ culture, history, tradition etc. get represented in school curriculum. Such step motherly attitude towards tribal communities in education system of Assam has alienated the tribal communities and inferiorized them. Alienation and inferiorization have affected the tribal students’ academic career to a great extent. There is very little representation of Bodo community and its culture, tradition, heroes, heroines etc. in the Bodo medium textbooks. A drama on king Iragdao, and small life story on the social reformist kalicharan Brahma have been included in Bodo MIL textbook of class ten. The little representation on Bodo community and its culture, heroes etc. are represented from the perspective of Bodos since authors or writers are belong to Bodo community and engaged in reformation and revival of Bodo culture etc. The Bodo culture, oral stories, narratives, heroes, heroines and their works have been represented in very limited way. There are certain representation of Bodo culture like making handicrafts, weaving, cultivation, dance etc. and a few heroes and heroines too got representation in the Bodo (MIL) textbook. Though they got representation in Bodo textbooks but it is not enough because it has not been represented in other books since Bodo textbooks are read by the Bodo medium students alone. People who consider the Bodo community and its rich culture as inferior and low quality have no ground knowledge of Bodo community. Bodo community and culture is rich and much advance unlike how non-tribal dominant communities perceive. Of course Bodo community needs to develop a lot in the context of education and economic but we have rich culture and the Bodo community is not less than any other community. There are representations of language, culture, history, tradition etc. of dominant communities of other countries global context, upper caste in Indian context, Assamese people in regional context, where indigenous communities’ culture, history, tradition etc. have no space.

The separate directorate for Bodo medium schools is at the utmost important that books can be published directly in Bodo language without translating from Assamese textbooks and question papers can be set in Bodo language directly without translating from other languages and could be free from domination, subjugation, discrimination etc. of dominant communities which are meted out to tribal communities through educational institution such as SEBA, ASERT, directorate etc. The Bodos would be able to solve many linguistic problems and administration problems if they are given separate directorate for Bodo medium school education and politics of dominance and representation issue would be reduced to great extent.

Corruption

In Indian society, corruption exists everywhere and every sphere of human life. The education system of Assam is not free from corrupt practices. Corruption in education sector of Assam is not something new but it has been very prevalent from long ago. Before Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) came into existence, massive corruption used to happen for teacher recruitment and appointment. During my field study one of the school principals has shared with me that when inspector of schools (IS) and other officers come for inspection from district education council, then they take money from the teachers and return without doing inspection. Government educational officers are misusing the power and by taking bribe from the school teachers not doing their duty well. Therefore they are unable to bring some kind of changes structural and system in school education domain within its jurisdiction due to their corrupt practices. These kind of corrupt practices have deteriorated the quality of education because educational officers have not done their job by taking money. Such corrupt practices have affected the quality of education tremendously even today. Students have become the victims of such corrupt practices of educational officer and the rights to quality education of students have been violated.

Bandh culture

Northeast is place where every now and then ban happens and Assam is no exception of this phenomenon. Assam is a very diverse state where different ethnic groups and communities co-exist. Every ethnic group and communities have their problems and demands. Therefore different ethnic groups or communities call for ban now and then to resolve their problems and meet their demands. Initially people use to go for peaceful protest to meet their demands but deft ear of state and central government have made the people to take different approach for movement and protest to make them hear. Lack of political will to resolve problems and discrimination meted out to marginalize communities have further deteriorated the situation of Northeast India. The failure of government to resolve the political issues at political level has led many ethnic communities to start armed struggle in the region, which derailed all the development programs and increase the ban culture. Later many other organisations also started economic blockage and shutting down all office as movement and protest that government hears them and meet their demands. This kind of ban culture has greatly affected the education system particularly students. Due to such issues teachers are unable to complete their syllabus during given period of time where students become the victims of ban culture, which also further contribute to the poor performance of the students. Thus ban culture has also affected the quality of education and become huge obstacle in achieving quality education.

Non-monitoring and evaluation

Proper monitoring is hindered by poor coordination between the Tribal Welfare Department and School Education Department. Officers from education department should go to schools on regular basis for inspection or monitoring, but the officers hardly go the schools for inspection or monitoring. When officers from education department come to schools for inspection or monitoring, they just check the attendance book and return. Officers from educational department do not meet students and all the stakeholders while they come for inspection. This kind of lack of proper monitoring has created problems in improving the quality of education in Assam especially in Bodo medium schools. The inspector of schools comes to visit school and certain other officers from the education department also come to visit and enquire schools occasionally. There is not set of number the inspector of schools have to visit the school but around three to four times IS visits the school in a year apart from other officers visiting schools. The different officers come to visit school and enquire about the academic, results, infrastructure etc. depending on their department. Basically the inspector of schools goes to the field or schools for inspection without prior information or make surprise visits. But whenever inspector has very important work with the school and need to discussed then he goes with the prior information that his visit does not go in vein and get all the important members of the school. IS and other educational officers from district education council do not visit private or venture unrecognized schools unless they approached by the school authority. ABSU should make inspection or monitoring on Bodo Medium school teachers and students and its functioning systems that school functions well and improve the quality of education.

There is no evaluation of teachers’ performance and awarding for good works in secondary school education system. There must be evaluation system for teachers to check the performance of the teachers, which also would help the teachers to improve their knowledge and teaching skill. There should be yearly awarding system based on teachers’ performance evaluation that would create tendency to improve knowledge and teaching skill among teachers. Non-evaluation system and poor monitoring system have contributed immensely in degrading quality of education in Assam especially Bodo medium schools in Udalguri district.

Poor administration and management

The administration system and management system of Assam secondary education is very poor in nature. There are different governing bodies within secondary education of Assam but they do not have good coordination among different governing bodies. Poor coordination among different governing bodies creates multiple complexities within the education system. The classic example is non-availability textbooks on time. Curriculum and syllabus committee of SEBA and ASERT should prepare textbooks in coordination but despite of having proper committee yet every year problem of curriculum emerges. The publication is responsibility of curriculum committee of SEBA and Assam state textbook production and Publication Corporation limited, both the committees need to work in coordination to make books available in the market on time. But books are not available in the market on time, despite of having proper committees to look after textbook publication issues. These kinds of problem arise out poor coordination while different committees are working together for certain purpose without any proper coordination. The management of various activities of SEBA is not satisfactory and therefore every year question paper leakage, burning answer paper of HSLC, cow eating answer sheets of HSLC etc. keep on happening despite of various preventive measure.

Following are the few incidents of mismanagement of SEBA:-

a. On 4th March, 2016, The Indian Express reports “The burning of answer papers Anywhere between 5,000 to 10,000 answer sheets of the on-going High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) Class X final examination conducted by the Secondary Education Board, Assam were gutted in a major fire that broke out in an evaluation centre in Jorhat in upper Assam on late Thursday night, with the state government ordering a CID inquiry into the incident.”

b. On 21st February, 2017, Assam Tribune reports “The tall claims of SEBA’s arrangements for error-free HSLC examination fell flat today, when two examination centres in the State received question papers of Social Science and Assamese (MIL) on the day of General Mathematics examination. The goof-up in question paper distribution was reported from two examination centres of Borimakha in Baksa and Morajhar in Hojai districts, where the question papers of Assamese and Social Science were found instead of Mathematics question papers, putting a question mark on the so-called ‘poll-like’ preparations for conducting the examinations smoothly this year.”

c. On 7th April, 2012, Times of India reports “The office premises of the Secondary Education Board of Assam (SEBA) turned tense on Saturday when activists of Asomiya Yuva Mancha (AYM), a youth organisation of the state, locked the entry gate of the Seba office in protest against cows eating up Matric exam answer scripts in Goalpara district.”

d. On 20th February, 2017 Pratidin News reports that “In another goof-up in the High School Leaving Certificate Examination (HSLC) conducted by the Secondary Education Board of Assam (SEBA), Assamese question papers were found in the packets at an exam centre on Monday instead of Mathematics. Teachers noticed the lapse at Borimakha HS School centre in Baksa district.”

Absenteeism of teachers

The absenteeism of teachers in school is on rise which creates lots of problem for the students. As we know that teacher is the centre stage in schools and students’ knowledge development evolves through him or her. The phenomenon of absenteeism of teachers in remote tribal areas on regular basis is not new and it affects the quality of education immensely. Bodo medium schools are no exception of this phenomenon in Assam. There are various reasons for being absent from school or taking classes. Thereare no strict rules and regulations for the teachers who always remain absent especially government run schools. There is no rules and regulations in place to take actions against teachers who remain absent from school. Therefore teachers take advantage of very flexible system rules and regulations of educational authority and do their own work other than academic or taking class in the school. Absenteeism of teachers affect the students’ academic career immensely because schools have many holidays in academic calendar and school remains close for at various times for calling ban by different ethnic groups or organizations. And if teachers remain absent from classes on school opening days then teacher cannot complete the syllabus before academic calendar and students become the victim of this problem. Thus absenteeism of teachers affects the quality of education of school education in Assam especially Bodo medium schools in rural areas.

Lack of quality teachers

Quality of teacher in schools of Assam especially in Bodo medium schools have become serious concern in providing quality education. There are hardly a few qualified teachers who fulfil the required criteria among school teachers to be a school teacher. According to Right to Education Act, 2009, every high school teachers have the qualification of B.Ed., but during my field study I have come across completely different scenario in the reality. In the schools which I visited during my field study I have seen that in certain school no teacher has done B.Ed. or hardly one teacher has done B.Ed. course. The teachers did not have pre-service training and hardly get in- service training after joining as teacher. Lack of quality and well trained teachers in schools have become major issue in improving or providing quality education in Bodo medium schools and Assam at large. Without having qualified and well trained teachers, we cannot expect quality education from unqualified teachers. Teachers are the centre stage and play key role in shaping the academic career of students and imparting knowledge. Therefore teachers must have enough knowledge and wisdom to impart good education to the students. A teacher is considered as philosopher, guide and friend of student. If a teacher is not qualified for the job and have no enough knowledge then we cannot expect quality education from such teachers. Lack of qualified teachers for the job and well trained teachers have become huge obstacle in providing quality education to the students.

Shortage of teachers

Shortage of teacher in schools is global phenomenon today and Bodo medium schools are no exception of this phenomenon. There is huge shortage of teachers in Bodo Medium schools which has created grievous problems in providing quality education to the students. During my field study I have seen and learnt from the teachers through discussions that they having serious shortage of teachers. The headmaster of Lal Bahadur Shastri High school said that there are 13 posts according to government scale in a school excluding non-teaching staffs but they have only 5 permanent staffs and 3 contractual staffs, where they have shortage of 5 teachers. Shortage of five teachers created heavy burden on 8 teachers and affected the quality of education dearly. The headmaster of another school told that there should be 10 teaching and non-teaching staffs in the school where only nine and tenth standards are there, one headmaster, three assistant teachers, two science teachers, a Hindi teacher, and an Assamese language teacher. But they have only 5 posts where supposed to be 10 posts. Therefore they have to keep part time teachers to bridge the gap of shortage of teachers. Using teachers other than academic purpose has further aggravated the shortage of teachers in the school. Despite of having shortage of teachers in school, teachers have to go for other government works such as government survey, NRC update, election duty, census etc. The shortages of teachers in schools have made the students-teacher ratio very imbalanced. There are huge numbers of students in a school and a few teachers. Students-teachers ratio should be 25:1 or 30:1, but in school we could see that 60:1 or 100: or so. The new rule of SEBA added another burden on school teacher that if a student fails in HSLC or metric exam then he or she has to attend classes regularly in their respective schools. Thus shortage of teachers in schools have hurt the quality of education extremely.

Top down structure of education system

The structure of education system in Assam is very much top down in nature. All the decisions are taken by top officials without consulting with grass root service providers or teachers. In the process of decision making the opinion of teachers and other grass root workers are not sought by the top officials. All the major works like examination, declaring result, formulating syllabus or curriculum, introducing new textbook, preparing academic and examination calendar, making module of teaching methodology etc. are decided by top educational officials without considering the lower officers. This top down structure of education system in Assam has failed to address the problems of the people and could not resolve the people’s demands and needs. To improve the quality of education and resolve the issues related to the quality of education the concerned authorities of education department should take the initiatives and consider the opinion and suggestion of ground level workers that constraints and challenges of quality education get resolved gradually. All the rules and regulations of secondary education of Assam are made by the SEBA for the smooth functioning of the schools, affiliated to SEBA. But in the process of decision making and formulating rules and regulations for better governance of schools, top officials do not seek for suggestions and opinions ofgrass root workers. Failure to take suggestions and opinions of grass root workers into consideration has led the rules and regulations formulated by top officials complexity. Thus top-down structure of school education system of Assam has failed to understand the need and demand of the students and teachers. And it has become serious concern in improving quality education of secondary education of Assam.

Transportation issue

We know that tribal people live in remote villages and terrains, where good roads for transportation and communication are almost invisible. Tribal students are unable to attend classes during rainy season due to broken roads. Such issues of tribal students have not been taken seriously by the government and government has done nothing to resolve such issues. Therefore tribal students have to stay away from the class during rainy season due to inconvenience which is created by natural calamities. Travelling from far places to attend classes make the students lazy particularly in the bad weather conditions like rainy season and hot sun etc. During rainy season roads are not in good condition which makes students lazy and abstain from classes. There are no good roads and therefore no buses or vehicles moves in the remote tribal villages. Therefore they have to skip the classes due to transportation inconvenience created by natural calamities. The students admitted that skipping classes affect the study and performance of the students. Thus it affects the students to large extent in their academic career.

Unavailability of textbooks on time

Unavailability of textbooks on time is not new phenomena in Assam school education system. The textbooks of school change within few years but after changing textbooks, publication house is unable to make the textbooks available in the market for easy access to students. Assam state production and Publication Corporation limited is the responsible agency for printing school textbook in education system of Assam and should make the books available in the market on time. But publication house has never been able to make the textbooks available in the changing year in the market. Students have to take classes without having textbooks if books are not available in the market on time. Following are the incidents of unavailability of textbooks on time:-

On 19th February, 2017, The Assam Tribune reports that “Protesting against the non- availability of textbooks in the State, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) today staged protest demonstrations across the State. All the regional units of the students’ body carried out the protest in their respective areas from 6 am to 4 pm. It is the moral responsibility of the State government to provide textbooks to each student with the beginning of the new academic year. But the State government has failed to fulfil its commitment even after nearly two months of the new academic year, AASU President Dipanka Kumar Nath said. The students’ body criticized the State Education Department and the Education Minister for ignoring the interest of the government schools. It is due to such difficulties that the vernacular medium schools are on the verge of extinction, the students’ body said and demanded immediate action by the State government in this regard.”

On 17th January, 2017, Assam Times reports that “The All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) has warned to lock education department office, which included district elementary education office, Deputy Inspector of Schools, Block elementary Education Office in protest against non-availability of textbooks in Bodo Medium Schools. The students union observed 2 hours sit in dharna in front of District Elementary Education Office in Kokrajhar, demanded immediate supply and distribution of all text books from class I to X in the state.”

Printing mistakes and changing certain lessons in the middle of the academic year also has become another serious issue in school education system of Assam. Following are the evidence of such incidents:-

Notification No. SEBA/AB/SYLL/1185-86/165 dtd. 27.11.2015 states that “A local culture specific prose lesson titled “A Visit to Kaziranga and Sivasagar” has been included as a prescribed prose piece in the English textbook “Beehive” for the class IX and one of the existing prescribed prose pieces titled “If I Were You” is dropped from the list of prescribed prose pieces from the academic session 2016. Henceforth, the students will read “A Visit to Kaziranga and Sivasagar” instead of “if I Were You” while marks distribution types of questions will remain the same.”

Notification No. SEBA/AB/S.Sc.H.G./5/2014/198 dtd. 26.2.2016, clarified on visuals in the social sciences part-I, History Textbook for Class X. “In the fifth chapter titled “The Cultural Heritage of India and Northeast” the name of the visual of Bodo folk dance Bagurumba is wrongly printed as Rabha dance. Concerned teachers may be directed to inform the students to read and caption of the dance as Bagurumba instead of Rabha dance. In the same chapter bamboo dance may be read as Cheraw dance also. In point 5.14 the word sol (snake-head fish) may be read as barali (cat- fish) in the second chapter titled Mahatma Gandhi and Freedom Movement of India, the visual given as Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose is the visual of an actor named Sachin Khedekar playing the role of Subhash Chandra Bose in a film named “Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose; the forgotten Hero” and not of the Subhash Chandra Bose. Students may be asked to see the correct visual of the revolutionary leader on the cover page of the same textbook. Bengali medium students need not follow this point, as a correct visual of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose has been printed in the corresponding chapter of the Bengali medium textbooks. Unfortunately the correction could not be done in other versions due to technical reasons.”

POLITICS OF REPRESENTATION

As a human being, one can always reflect on the past, examine the present conditions of society, and prepare for the future generations by sharing cultural stories. Throughout history, stories have often been viewed through the eyes of the dominant society of the White man (Yellow Bird, 2004). A broad range of educational and social research has converged on the issue of social dominance and as Howard (1999) has explained; the true “enemy” is dominance itself and not White people. The study of dominance has been related to research on issues such as prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination, racism, social identity theories and work in the field of political socialization (Sidanius and Pratt, 1993). Characterized by institutional racism in the public school arena, there has been a long history of misunderstanding traditional American Indian cultural values and beliefs on the part of the dominant culture (Deloria, 1991). Institutional racism has been defined as the power systems to control the behaviour of non-whites (Spring, 2004b). There has been a long history of misunderstanding of traditional American Indian cultural values and beliefs and discrimination on the part of the government and its policies during five recognized stages (Deloria, 1995).

Tradition and Culture

Many school textbooks are developed based on traditions and cultures of human society. It is important to present the traditions and culture through textbooks or writings. Writing the traditions and cultures of different communities is important in giving knowledge regarding the culture and tradition to other people who are not belonging to same community. It is also important to keep traditions and cultures alive through writings. Every community has its distinct tradition and culture which is identity of a community. Representing traditions and cultures in the discourse of education have been politicized at large extent. The dominant communities play key role in production of knowledge and they have the tendency to represent their tradition and cultures in textbooks. They do not give opportunity to marginalized communities like tribals and minorities in representation of traditions and cultures in textbooks. The dominant communities claim their tradition and culture over tribal tradition and culture. When we look at the textbooks of Assam then we could see maximum traditional and cultural representation in books are belonging to Assamese community and other communities like Bodos are getting very little space in representation of tradition and culture in school textbooks.

There are little representation in the Bodo textbook on Bodo community and its culture and tradition. It is has been represented from the perspective of Bodos since authors or writers are belong to Bodo community and engaged in reformation and revival of Bodo culture and tradition. The Bodo culture and tradition have been represented in very limited way and also only in Bodo (MIL) textbook, it has been represented and did not get space in other textbooks besides Bodo (MIL) textbook which is not enough to tell the culture and tradition of Bodo community. There are certain representation of Bodo culture and tradition like making handicrafts, weaving, cultivation, and dance in Bodo MIL textbooks. Though they got representation in Bodo textbooks but it is not enough because it has not been represented in other books since Bodo textbooks are read by Bodo medium students alone. The people who consider the Bodo community and its rich culture as inferior and low quality have no ground knowledge of Bodo community. Bodo community and its tradition and culture is quite advance. Of course Bodo community needs to develop a lot in the context of education and economic but Bodos have rich culture and tradition that Bodo community is not less than any other community.

History

History of human society has always been politicized by different people. History is the image of a race or group of people. Basically tribals did not have written history at earlier times but recent past, tribals have started developing written history from their oral stories. The school textbooks represent history of different groups of people. But the question of who has been represented and who has not been represented arises in the discourse of education. History textbooks in schools basically represent the history in three levels such as international history, national history and regional history. Other than history textbooks, there are other school textbooks represents short histories of different groups of people in school education. The school textbooks of the Bodo medium or other mediums have been written history of global, national and regional level but except Bodo (MIL) subject Bodo students do not get to study on Bodo community. Cultures of dominant groups of people represented in different levels in the textbooks like global, national and regional. When we talk about human history in education system of Assam, the American and European History are represented in world history; Mughals Empire and other Hindu empires are represented in national history and Ahom history in the regional history. The smaller and less powerful groups do not get representation of regional politics.

Oral stories and folktales

The oral stories and folktales play very important role among tribal communities. Initially tribal communities did not have written documents on its history, culture, tradition etc. Therefore tribal communities had to depend on oral stories and folktales to know about the community’s history, culture, tradition etc. Though tribal communities have developed written history in recent past, yet oral stories and folktales still take important place among tribal communities. The history which has been developed by the tribals in recent past is basically based on oral stories and folktales of the tribal communities. The oral stories and folktales of Bodo tribe also play very important amongst Bodo community like among many other tribal communities. Writing on Bodo history, culture, tradition etc. have been developed around the oral stories and folktales of Bodo community. The oral stories and folktales of Bodo community have given little space in Bodo medium school through Bodo MIL textbooks. There are two oral stories or folktales in class tenth Bodo MIL textbook and one in class 9th Bodo medium textbooks. Two oral stories or folktales of class tenth Bodo MIL textbooks represents the two Bodo heroes namely freedom fighter Swmdwn jwhwlao and social reformist Gurudev Kalicharan Brahma and their works. The oral story of class ninth Bodo MIL textbook represents the last Bodo king Iragdao. The oral story of the king Iragdao is written in the form of drama rather than story or history. Due to politics in production of knowledge and dominance over weaker sections of people, the oral story or folktales did get any space in other textbooks besides Bodo MIL textbooks even in Bodo medium school textbooks.

Folk songs

The importance of folk songs among tribal communities is immense. It is very much attached to tribal communities and part and parcel of every tribal community. There are different kinds of folk songs which are sung at different occasions. There are many different kinds of folk songs such as heroism folk song, patriotism folk song, farmers’ folk songs, child persuasion folk song, romantic folk song, cow boy folk song, wedding folk songs, festival folk song etc. The heroism folk song had been sung while going for war or to fight with enemies. The patriotism folk song had been sung for the love of his kingdom and people. The child persuasion folk song had been sung while child is crying. Thus many different folk songs have been developed with specific purpose and they had been sung according to right occasion of the song. Though it is very important for tribal communities including Bodo community, it has not given enough space even in the Bodo medium schools. It has not gotten representation any other textbooks of Bodo medium schools except Bodo MIL textbooks. Though it has been given space in Bodo MIL textbooks of Bodo medium school, yet it has not given enough space even in the Bodo MIL textbooks. Gradually people are giving less importance to folk songs which was very important for the every tribal community once. It should be given more space because it is the identity of Bodo culture and tradition which they have been practicing generation to generation.

Heroes and Heroines

There exists a dichotomy in the concept of hero among the students. Discussions relating to the theme evoked spirited and enthusiastic responses – Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Bhagat Singh and Rani of Jhansi emerged as the most prominent, followed by Lakshminath Bezbaruah, Kanaklata Baruah and Maniram Dewan (Narzary & Swargiary, 2013). It was good and fairly impressive that the students of an interior village could tell about the national heroes of India and Assam. Tremendous amount of hard work and dedication on the part of the teachers went into shaping the knowledge base of the students. Three Bodo heroes are represented in Bodo (MIL) textbook namely Swmdwn Jwhwlao, Raja Iragdao and Gurudev Kalicharan Brahma but their works have not been presented proper manner. Raja Iragdao has been represented in the form of drama in class ninth Bodo MIL textbook. And Swmdwn Jwhwlao and Gurudev Kalicharan Brahma and their works have been represented in class tenth Bodo MIL textbook. Besides these three heroes no other Bodo heroes and heroines have got representation in Bodo mediums school textbooks. The most important person among Bodo community and who has been considered as “Father of Bodos” (Bodo-Fa) Lt. Upendra Nath Brahma has not been represented in textbooks of Bodo medium school including Bodo MIL textbooks. It is a huge conspiracy of education system of Assam that always keeping away the most important person of Bodo community from Bodo medium school textbooks. The state government and people from dominant communities who are controlling the production of knowledge are playing huge politics in the context of representation of Heroes and heroines in the discourse education in the state. Dominant communities have the tendency to represent their heroes and heroines in the school textbooks and do not want to give representation of heroes and heroines from marginalized communities especially tribal communities.

Imposition of language and culture

The language and culture plays the most important role in human life. Language and culture is the identity of a person and community. Without having language and culture we cannot have identity of our own. Therefore every person and social groups are holding and maintaining the language and culture to keep of his or her identity. Every community or social group has the tendency to impose their language and culture on other. When British captured India and rule over India for almost two centuries, they starting imposing their language and culture on Indians, after the departure of British or post-Independence India, dominant social groups imposed their language and culture on other especially Brahmins and upper castes. Assimilation is a process of imposing one’s language and culture on other weaker and minority groups. Educational institution and medium of instruction have also become a kind of imposing language and culture on weaker sections of society. Giving more importance of a language over another bring complexion of superiority and inferiority. In Assam after Assam Gana Parishad came to power in 1985, AGP government tried to impose Assamese language and culture on all the communities who are living in Assam. It became identity problem for many other communities due to which various kinds of protests took places against the government decision.

On 1st March, 2017, Pratidin Times reports that “The cabinet also announced that Sanskrit has been made mandatory to class eight standards in Assam. This decision has been taken at cabinet meeting held at Dispur in Guwahati.”

CONCLUSION

Structural issues of secondary education of Assam need to be relooked to resolve the structural problems of secondary education system of Assam. The structure of the secondary education of Assam is very much top-down in nature. Top down structure of the school system has given all the decision making powers to top officials and grass root workers especially teachers do not have a say in decision making process rather only executing the policies made by top officials based on given guidelines. There are different governing bodies and agencies to look after different activities for better governance. There are also different committees within a governing body to share the activities among officials for smooth functioning. For smooth function of governing bodies different committees within a governing body and different agencies and governing bodies should coordinate and support. There is poor coordination between governing bodies and agencies and also different committees within same governing body. Therefore, the issues related to power and decision making needs to be looked into. Basically teachers who work in grass root have lots of knowledge on problems of implementation. Therefore while making new schemes, policies, rules and regulations, teachers and other grass root workers’ suggestions and opinions must be taken into consideration that it helps in formulating better policies, rules and regulations. If teachers’ opinions are also taken into consideration for formulating new policies then it would surely help the structural problems to solve to certain extent. Lack of coordination among different committees and governing bodies of education department needs to be taken seriously and look into carefully. The problems and loopholes of less coordination need to be identified and addressed. Once issues related to lack of coordination among governing bodies and committees are identified then it would help in coming out with new ideas that can help in solving the issues of lack of coordination. However, it would also help in formulating new strict rules and regulations that governing board can take strict action, if the concerned committees failed to coordinate each other and fail to fulfil their duties responsibly.

There are numbers of constraints and challenges in providing quality education to the students. Infrastructure has become huge hindrance in providing quality education to the students especially in rural areas. The infrastructure condition of many rural schools is very pathetic especially private schools. Infrastructure is the utmost important aspect of education system in present times. We cannot imagine getting education without infrastructure like ancient times. In this globalized world technology has become very important aspect in present education system. Modern information technologiescannot be installed, if the infrastructure of the school is not good. Therefore, to start education institution we must have infrastructure and have to have good infrastructure to incorporate modern information technologies. So, we need to have good infrastructure to have required facilities in the school and to cope up with standard of education of this globalized world.

Teachers related issues have been worsening day by day. The teachers’ posts are lying vacant and government has no intention to fill the vacancies immediately, which is leading to shortage of teachers in government schools especially in rural schools. Using teachers for non-academic purposes like NRC update, census, survey etc. have further contributed in shortage of teachers in the schools. Government should fill the vacant posts as early as possible that schoosl do not face the shortage of teachers and students do not become victim of such issues. Quality of teachers has contributed immensely in degrading the quality of education. Maximum teachers in Bodo medium schools are not well qualified and trained due to which they do not have enough knowledge to teach the students. Therefore teacher selection process should be relooked that unqualified people do not get the job. Absenteeism of teachers has derailed the smooth flow of classes and have contributed in degrading the quality of education at great extent. Irregularities of payment to school teachers have contributed in absenteeism of teacher because they have to find other means for their sustainability if they do not get the payment on time. Therefore government should release the payment of teachers on time and formulate strict law for the teachers who do not come to school on regular basis to take classes that quality of education does not get affected due to such problems.

Administration and management are the backbones for smooth functioning of the educational institution. Therefore we should have good administration system in place and managing various administrative activities should be good. There is no administration body to monitor and evaluate on the performance of teachers. If there is proper monitoring and evaluation system in place then teachers will always try to improve their knowledge and skill. There also be award and punishment for teachers based on their performance that teachers teach the students with full responsibility. Many teachers are not responsible and sincere enough with their job but once such awarding and punishing system would come in place then teachers will automatically become responsible and would teach the students sincerely. There are mismanagement is very much prevalent in present education system due to which various educational issue like unavailability of textbooks on time, question paper leakage, answer paper burning etc., problems taking place every year in school education of Assam. Such problems need to be looking into carefully that it can be prevented and does not occur in coming years.

Attitude of the people towards education system should change to improve the quality of education. The politicians should change their mind set and really work for the poor people as they work for their children in the context of giving quality education to their children. Unless politicians change their mind set and really work for the people the constraints of providing quality education will not be solved. The students and parents are not in touch with the school or teachers and also their not conscious enough regarding importance of quality education. Therefore raising consciousness among parents, students and masses are very important to improve the quality education. The school education system should be corruption free because school authorities take bribe when come for school inspection due to which they cannot take action against the school teachers for their ineffective activities. If they become corrupt free officers then they will be able to act against ineffective school teachers. Concerned school authorities should organise seminar, exposure programs, workshop, school visit should be more frequent, should keep eye on results, awareness programs should be conducted on various issues and importance of education, conscious raising program should be organized for parents and students, then such thing could help in improving quality education. Politics is prevalent everywhere and every sphere of human life, yet the authority of educational institutions should distance themselves from politics. Involvement in politics in the discourse of education would lead the person to discriminate, hate, subjugate others. The present education system of Assam has been discriminating Bodo medium and Bodo medium has deprived of various things, if separate directorate comes true then Bodo medium schools will be free from such kinds of discrimination and deprivation. The directorate which is governed by dominant social groups is controlling the Bodo too due to which inclusion and exclusion of certain important things and politics of representation very much prevalent. The Bodo medium students never gets position in top ten or twenty, but the reason for not getting in such position is not all about incompetence of Bodo medium school students but there is politics of suppression, exploitation, partiality, domination etc. of dominant communities. Therefore state government school create separate directorate for Bodo medium schools that Bodos do not become victim of discrimination, subjugation and politics of representation in the long run.

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38. http://www.assamtopix.com/2014/08/the-education-system-of-assam- needs.html

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40. http://borolandnews.blogspot.in/2007/10/on-roman-script.html

41. http://www.indianmirror.com/tribes/bodotribe.html

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