post news network, Bhubaneswar, May 16: Around 12 male students of the Oriya department of the Visva Bharati have embarked on a cycle rally from Santiniketan to Satyabadi, in the Puri district, Saturday. They will reach Satyabadi on May 31.
The rally is being organised by the Nikhala Utkal Students’ Union to create awareness among people about the appointment of Oriya teachers in schools in which students of Oriya language should be given preference.
Subrat Prusthy, member secretary of Institute of Oriya studies and Research, said, “The main aim of the rally is to create awareness among people about the appointment of Oriya teachers, which should be made only on the basis of an academic degree in Oriya. It should be mandatory that the applicants should be an honours graduate in the Oriya language. There are many states, which implement this pattern and select a language teacher on the basis of the degree on that particular subject but here in Orissa many Oriya subjects teachers in schools have not done any specialisation in the subject. Some of the teachers were the student of other subjects but are teaching Oriya language in schools, which in turn is causing bad results in many schools.”
The rally began at 6am Saturday from the premises of the Santiniketan. It will cover several areas including places like Jaleswar, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapada, Cuttack etc. From Laxmannath, near the West Bengal-Orissa border, around 30 students will accompany the cyclists and escort them till they reach the next destination from where other groups of students will join them. Around 30 public meetings will be held by the students on their way to Puri in which they will talk about the issue and collect the opinions of the people.
