Kokrajhar, May 28: The Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) today handed over appointment letters to 1,552 candidates who cleared the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) at a programme organised by the department of education, BTC at Iragda community hall in Titaguri.

Of the 1,552 candidates, 980 have been selected in lower primary schools. In upper primary schools, 441 have been hired for teaching social science and 131 for teaching mathematics and science. Among the 1,552 candidates, 223 have been inducted into Bodo-medium schools.

“In Bodo-medium schools, 223 teachers have been appointed against 712 vacancies while in other schools, 1,329 candidates have been hired out of 1,682 available vacancies,” said BTC executive member in-charge of the education department, Derhasat Basumatary.

In Kokrajhar, 267 and 176 candidates have been hired in lower primary and upper primary schools respectively. In Baksa district, 170 have been hired in lower primary schools and 202 in upper primary schools.BTC chief Hagrama Mohilary, the chief guest, handed over the appointment letters to the candidates. Moromi Dev Barua of Baksa who was the topper in Assamese medium (upper primary) was the first to get the letter.

In his speech, Mohilary spoke of lowering the cut-off marks for Scheduled Tribe candidates. “When we don’t have candidates when the cut-off mark is 50 or 45, what should we do? Don’t we need to lower the cut-off mark?” he asked. “We just can’t stick to our decision. We need to think and do the needful if the situation arises.”

Mohilary’s statement contradicted tourism minister Chandan Brahma’s speech where he criticised organisations and leaders of trying to play with the quality of education by demanding lowering of cut-off marks.

The minister also said the state government was working to solve the issues related to Bodo-medium schools, including amending the Assam Venture Educational Institution (Provincialisation of Services) Act, 2011, as demanded by the Bodo Sahitya Sabha and All Bodo Students’ Union. The two organisations have demanded scrapping of Sections 3(1) (i), (ii), (iii) and 4(1) of the act.

The act will be amended in the next Assembly session. The government is also working on the separate directorate for Bodo and other tribal medium. There is solution to every problem, he said.

President of Bodo Sahitya Sabha Kameswar Brahma congratulated the candidates and urged all them to do their best. “Don’t take it just as a regular job offer for the sake of salary, work with full responsibility. Respect the profession and work with full dedication as it involves the future of a child and society,” he said.