Assam pressure group protests against education board

Guwahati, April 7 (IANS) A leading pressure group of Assam Saturday locked the main gate of the Secondary Education Board of Assam (SEBA) headquarters at Bamunimaidam area here to protest against what it called "the careless attitude of the Board towards the future of thousands of students in the state".

The organization "Assomiya Yuva Mancha" (AYM) also held a dharna in front of the SEBA headquarters and burnt the effigy of SEBA chairman Shantikam Hazarika to protest against a recent incident in Goalpara district, where some cows entered an evaluation room of the education Board and devoured some of the answer scripts kept there.

The Board has been receiving a lot of flak over the last few months for various reasons, including errors in the admittance card and question paper goof-ups in this year's Matriculation examination held during March.

"The Board has failed in all aspects. First, there were goof-ups regarding the admittance cards of students. The Board also failed to hold examinations smoothly as question papers of General Science and Social Studies were leaked, forcing the SEBA authorities to reschedule the examinations. How can they be so careless that cows could devour the answer scripts," said J. Deka, an AYM leader.

"They (SEBA) must know that they do not have the authority to play with the lives of lakhs of students, for whom Matric or the High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) examination is a very serious affair as it helps them secure admission to good colleges across the state," he said.

"We demand immediate resignation of the SEBA chairman Shantikam Hazarika," he added.

Police later intervened in the SEBA headquarters and unlocked the gate and led the employees and staff of the Board out, who had been locked up inside the building for several hours.

SEBA chairman Shantikam Hazarika later told mediapersons that the Board had already initiated an inquiry into the incident. Hazarika also clarified that the answer scripts, part of which were consumed by cows, had been evaluated already and so it was not going to affect the future of the students.