GUWAHATI, Sept 9 - With the Bodo political movement reaching one milestone following signing of peace accord with four factions of National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB), the All Bodo Students� Union (ABSU) has decided to concentrate more on issues concerning the students as well as social issues like witch hunting. The ABSU will also try to work on skill development of the youths, who have returned to the State from various parts of the country following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, ABSU president Dipen Boro hailed the move of the Government to create a separate Education Directorate for Bodo medium and other ethnic languages and said that it would go a long way in improving the education sector. He said that the ABSU had been demanding creation of a separate Directorate for Bodo medium education for more than two decades.
Boro, who took over as the ABSU president recently, said that for years, the Government failed to give due importance to Bodo medium schools and there is need for improving the infrastructure. He said delay in distribution of textbooks was a major concern, while most schools faced shortage of teachers. Though results of the Bodo medium schools improved considerably in the last few years, the failure of the Government to solve the problems of those schools resulted in low enrolment. He hoped that creation of a separate Directorate would help in solving the problems of Bodo medium schools in the days to come.
The ABSU president said preparing students for competitive examinations is another project taken up by the student�s body. He said that unemployment, not only among the educated youths, but also among the drop outs is a major problem and efforts would be made for skill development so that youths can find self employment avenues.
He said that large number of youths of the BTC area had to return from other states following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and providing them self employment opportunities would be a major challenge.
Boro expressed the hope that signing of the accord with four factions of NDFB would help in restoration of peace in the BTC area and said that all sections of the society would have to work on ensuring permanent peace in the area. He said that the ABSU would also work for dealing with social issues like witch hunting, misuse of social media etc and in the days to come, the students� body would start counselling sessions to make people aware against the social evils.
The ABSU has also taken up the issue of delay in implementing the peace accord in January and Bodo said that the Government had informed them that the process was delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic.
