Examination in the face of govt apathy

Nearly four lakh students from Assam faced their first paper on February 13 for their Higher School Leaving Certificate (HSLC)—“matric”— examination. Most of these students would have prepared in the comfort and safety of their homes, except about 30 Rengma Naga students from Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) who spent their preparatory time hiding in jungles or in relief camps. On the exam day, they were herded into a pick-up truck, and a security van accompanied them to their exam centre. 
Nearly 700 Rengma students (from all age groups) have been affected by the violence that erupted in December last year—along with their homes, all their books, certificates, school uniforms and futures were reduced to ashes. Till date, the Government of Assam, or the KAAC, has not stepped in to provide any basic assistance to the students. Khurang Rengma (15) is weak in Math and English but tuitions were impossible to come by at the relief camps where she, and the rest of the students, had to prepare. The Government cared little.

“Till last night, they were hunting for school uniforms,” said Jokhen J. Rengma (51), father of Wathi (15), as she sat in the exam hall of Chokihola High School, under semi tight State security, waiting to write what she could not prepare for. “With more than thousand people at the relief camp, and Xeroxed notes, there is little the students could study. They are disturbed. There is much doubt in my mind whether they will get the required percentage to study further,” admitted Wathi’s father who, like other parents, hopes for the intervention of god now.

“I doubt if any Rengma student will pass this year,” confessed Sheno Seb Rengma (60), a lower primary school teacher from Chokihola—not because the students are weak but because their circumstances are. Sheno is accommodating four students at his place currently who are appearing for their class 10 board exams from the nearby Chokihola High School. Like him, some other families have stepped in to provide temporary study-cum-living spaces in their little homes to these students as even hostels where Rengma students used to put up to study in the vicinity—there is no electricity or schools in most Rengma villages in KAAC—were burnt down. Rolend Rengma (55), one of the parents, is volunteering his pick-up truck and time to ply the 16 students to their exam centres in Nillip constituency (the rest will appear from Santipur and Diphu).

The possibility of Sheno’s prophecy taking shape is high due to the apathy of the Government of Assam, and the KAAC, which has managed to provide merely ration and some security personnel to the displaced till date.

The Rengma Naga Students’ Union, Karbi Anglong (RNSU), which visited the students of Nillip constituency to instill some confidence in them before the exam, had submitted a memorandum to the Government of Assam for at least hostels to be provided to the children wherein to study; for uniforms and books to be provided. Nothing came. “Hurt,” but optimistic all the same, the RNSU president, Phenpiga H. Rengma, asserted, “We are looking for more intervention from the Government of Assam for the students so their future is not completely destroyed.”  

Faced with the current situation and the regional context of armed conflict, the Government of Assam can ill afford to be apathetic to the situation. “Without a good matric percentage, they will not get into good colleges, and the prospect of further education is bleak, as is their future,” says Sheno with a hint of timeless sorrow hidden behind a smile. Too many young people from the region have taken to violent means, having seen their futures destroyed, with no way to take control of their lives, and their elders hope naught for any more of it. The Government needs to take better note of this.