HT Correspondent
TEZPUR, July 30: Apex literary body, the Asam Sahitya Sabha on Saturday made its stand clear against the state government’s decision to teach Science and Mathematics in English language from class 3 to 12 in all the vernacular medium schools.
Notably, the decision to teach Mathematics and Science in English from class 3 was taken at a cabinet meeting on Thursday, which was chaired by Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. In the cabinet meeting held on July 28, the Assam government also decided to introduce dual language methods from class 8 in the government and other provincialised schools.
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Sabha president Kuladhar Saikia and principal secretary of the literary body Jadab Sarma in a press communiqué issued on Saturday said that such a decision of the Assam cabinet is conflicting to the scientific approach to education and contrary to the National Education Policy-2020.
The apex literary body pressed the state government to take another look at the cabinet decision taken on July 28, last and said that a child or adolescent can learn Science and Mathematics correctly only through their respective mother tongue. “Number of prominent educationists and noted thinkers and subject matter experts in the past have also given opinion in favour of it,” Sabha said in the communiqué.
The apex literary body also stressed the Assam government to initiate special measures to improve infrastructure of the vernacular medium schools and provide appropriate training for the teachers to teach English in the government schools.
“Asam Sahitya Sabha has made it clear that it will never accept any changes in the medium and will continue to oppose it,” Sabha further said. It added, “The government’s recent decision will create hindrance to the development of the Assamese and other ethnic languages. If the state government does not reconsider its decision, the existence of vernacular medium schools in Assam will disappear in the days to come.”
Lurinjyoti castigates cabinet’s decision as purblind
HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, July 30: Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) president Lurinjyoti Gogoi on Saturday said that the Assam cabinet’s recent decision to introduce dual language method in all the government and provincialised schools was purblind.
Gogoi stressed that the shortsighted decision of the cabinet will put the Assamese language and the community in great danger in the long run.
Addressing the press persons at the party headquarters located in the city’s Zoo Road Tiniali, the AJP president Gogoi said, “Assam cabinet’s decision taken on July 28 to introduce dual language teaching method in government schools is clearly purblind.”
Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has taken the decision against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stand. “Such shortsighted decisions will restrict the development of the Assamese, Bodo and other ethnic languages of the state,” he said.
The AJP also opposed the cabinet’s decision to teach Mathematics and Science in English language from the next academic session in all government and provincialised Assamese and other vernacular medium schools.
Pressing the Assam government to withdraw the decision, the AJP president said that mother tongue should be the medium of instruction and it itself is the universal idea of education.
AJP president Gogoi further said that the UNO and its allied agencies, the UNESCO and even the NEP-2020 have clearly suggested imparting education in mother tongue.
Stating that the constitutional safeguard mentioned in the clause 6 of the Assam Accord also includes protection of the mother tongue, that is the Assamese, Gogoi said, “The BJP-led Assam government has already showcased its anti-Assamese language stand by withdrawing the language paper from the APSC examination. The state government’s effort to establish English medium schools is another such anti-Assamese attempt. Under this given situation the AJP realizes that the state government is conspiring to let the Assamese language in chink.”
