Protest Against the Assam’s Policy Mandating Govt Job Aspirants to take “Special Exams”

Vinod Kakumanu
Aug. 2, 2021, 11:50 a.m.

The board exams were canceled in the wake of the pandemic across the nation. Assam was no exception, however, there was an unexpected development in this regard when the Government of Assam indicated that the evaluation criteria used to promote students sans exam will not hold if the students in the future want to apply for government jobs.

There is a clause of contention in the criteria set by the government-appointed special committees. It says that the mark sheets derived from the provisional evaluation criteria will not be valid for the state government jobs.

The committee reasoned that the criteria for recruitment in the government jobs are based on the HSLC (class 10) and HSSLC (class12) marks, hence the students who are promoted sans exams will have to appear in the special exams should they apply for state government jobs. This implies that board exams will be conducted when the pandemic situation improves for those who wish to get into government jobs, which includes the teaching jobs requiring Teacher Eligibility Test qualification.

The tentative dates for the special exams are set from September 15 onwards, which coincides with the exam dates for the students dissatisfied with the evaluation scheme.

Assam was among the states that canceled the board exams last. Some students even moved to the Supreme Court when the exams were announced to be held from August 1.

In Assam, around seven lakh students were supposed to appear in the 10 and 12 board exams this year, before they were canceled.

Student organizations including All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), All Bodo Students Union (ABSU), and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chhatra Parishad (AJYCP), and the opposition parties have demanded that the contentious clause be withdrawn.