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Overburdening Burdened Children

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The latest decision of the SEBA (Secondary Education Board of Assam) to make Hindi a compulsory subject for High School Leaving Certificate (Class X) examination would add to the percentage of failure for the Board. It is a torture to make a three-language formula to the already overburdened students. Already the two language structure (Assamese and English) is making things difficult for students in rural areas. How can they afford so many tuitions given that extra classes are a necessary evil to get a grasp of such voluminous curriculum of today!


The reasons cited by SEBA officials is that the move would equop the students of the state with a good skill over Hindi when they move to other places of the country Hindi being the national language. But this is very shortsighted decision. Reasons:



  1. Not all students from the villages and towns of Assam are going to Hindi belt to work. Many would go to the South Indian states. In that case, Tamil, Kanada, Telegu etc should also be made compulsory for the matriculation exam.

  2. What about those students who might land up in Germany or France? Should they appear for these languages for the High School Leaving Certificate Exam? What arrangements will the SEBA make for them?

  3. Hindi is not yet accepted by many pockets of India as the national language. But yes, it has become the language of Entertainment for most parts of India. More than Hindi subject in schools, it is through Bollywood films and songs and TV serials that Hindi has become entertainment language of India. As such, people can get elementary idea and even more by watching these Hindi programmes and listening to songs. There is no point of overburdening our already burdened children with three language formula.

  4. One needn’t be a Prem Chand to carry out daily activities in Hindi. Look at Mamata Banerjee, Pranab Mukherjee, or ministers from South India. They speak a heavily accented Hindi, yet they are holding the power posts in New Delhi.


I would like to request D. Mahanta, the secretary of SEBA and the academicians of the state to think over the matter and keep Hindi as an elective subject as it is till today.



Yours etc.,


Agastyi Barua
Guwahati

Comments

Pallavi Barua's picture

Submitted by Pallavi Barua on Wed, 02/09/2009 - 11:28
Our children would be Jack of all trades, but master of None. I vehemently oppose this decision of SEBA. Those who emmigrate to different parts of the world will learn the required languages at that point of time, when and where required. Already, the students in Assam are working hard on one non-native language English. And SEBA wants to add more! Come on, give them a break!
Agastyi's picture

Submitted by Agastyi on Thu, 03/09/2009 - 16:32
When a piece of bread is thrown before a dog, it jumps and has it. When a piece of bread is thrown before a lion, it roars and attacks the one who throws the bread. In this case, the bread is Hindi, which the Central government declared as the 'national' language of India. Lion-like behaviour is shown by South India while dog-like behaviour is shown by North-East India. It has whatever is thrown at it by the Centre. Now, the latest organisation from the region to show such dog-like behaviour is the SEBA (Secondary Education Board of Assam). Unlike states like Tamil Nadu, this board of Assam plans to make Hindi a compulsory subject in class X exams.

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