The Board of Secondary Education Assam (SEBA) has kept its notification on compulsory learning of the Assamese language in schools in abeyance.
Without divulging any details, in a fresh notification, the SEBA secretary on Sunday (April 18, 2021) said the earlier notification issued on April 12, 2021 regarding implementation of Assamese Language Leaning Act 2020 was kept in abeyance.
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The new notification issued by the SEBA secretary on April 18, 2021 said: “The notification no. SEBA/AB/AG/26/2020/9 dated, 12th April, 2021 issued from this office regarding implementation of Assamese Language Learning Act 2020, has been kept in abeyance, until further order.”
The SEBA through its earlier notification had given two options to the school students under the state board for compulsory learning of the Assamese language.
Also read: Assam: SEBA issues guidelines for compulsory learning of Assamese language in schools
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This was done as per the provisions of the Assamese Language Learning Act 2020 in a bid to make learning Assamese compulsory for the students of schools under SEBA.
As per SEBA guidelines, for schools belonging to areas other than the 6th Scheduled areas, Barak Valley and Bodo medium schools of other areas, two options have been given to the students for compulsory learning of the Assamese language.
In the 6th Scheduled areas, the Barak Valley and Bodo medium schools, however, this rule won’t be compulsory, the SEBA guidelines said but they will get the option to choose Assamese as an elective subject, and obtain a proficiency certificate as an incentive.
The rules would be effective from Class IX registration for 2021. As per the first option, any student not opting for Assamese as MIL can choose Assamese (E) as ‘elective subject’.
In such case, the total number of subjects for such candidates would be six.
At present, there are 11 MIL subjects under SEBA and the list of the elective subjects comprises 31 subjects.
For the students who neither opts for Assamese as MIL nor takes Assamese (Elective) as an ‘elective subject’, there would be another option to choose Assamese (Elective) as one additional subject.
Such students would have to appear for seven papers instead of six papers. The additional paper would contain 100 marks.
As per the April 12 SEBA notification, the marks obtained in the additional seventh paper won’t be counted for merit purposes and will be shown separately in the marks sheet.
However, it would be mandatory for the students to appear in the Assamese (Elective) examination to qualify in the HSLC examination, the earlier notification said.
In the schools in the 6th Scheduled Areas and Barak Valley and the Bodo medium schools, if any student selects MIL subject other than Assamese, he or she will get the option of selecting the additional seventh paper of Assamese (E), which, however, will not be compulsory for them.