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Tripura government to re-introduce Sanskrit from school level

UNI, Agartala | Published : 12th April 2018

The Tripura government is planning to re-introduce Sanskrit from class VI and adopt the NCERT syllabus in the government schools from next academic year.

According to a top government official, the Tripura government has been reviewing the status of Sanskrit education in the school level while considering to introduce the syllabus of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) from next academic year.

Referring to a recent discussion at ministerial level regarding Sanskrit as a subject in the schools, a top official here today said that Tripura government has tagged five subjects including Sanskrit and Arabic as first language at secondary level, and intiatives will be taken to encourage students to study both Sanskrit and Arabic.

He mentioned that the state government planned to re-introduce Sanskrit from class VI and the students will be encouraged in all respects to study the subject till the postgraduate level. Similarly, Lushai (a tribal dialect) and Arabic will be included in the school curriculum from the next academic year and students would be encouraged to opt for the subjects.

"There have been no recruitment of Classical Teachers after 1990 and as a result, except Bengali and English, studying all other languages became inconvenient for the students. At present, only students of class VII and VIII are studying Sanskrit, and hardly any student opts for the subject in secondary and higher secondary level," the official stated.

"Sanskrit is the oldest language in India and the government is duty bound to provide equal support and encouragement for each and every language to study in the schools, colleges and universities. The predecessors deliberately prevented the student from learning Sanskrit, Arabic and Lushai but our government will not allow such dogmatic thoughts," said education minister Ratan Lal Nath.

He also accused the earlier leftist government of undermining social science and important classical languages, which provoked students and guardian to study science subjects till higher secondary that indirectly directed the students to go for private tuition and special coaching avoiding the regular classes.

There is an unnatural attempt among the guardians to make their wards either doctor or engineers, which led them into unnecessary competition and hampered the natural process of learning, Nath opined adding, "Yes, at present India needs more doctors, and engineers have also demand in the country and abroad but it doesn't mean that everyone should go to these streams. It is also true that we have already seen the vacuum in core subjects in all the streams, which is actually affecting the development of the country."Tripura government has decided to bring equilibrium in the study of all the subjects, he said.

Regarding introduction of NCERT syllabus at school level, education minister stated that the government is in favour of unified curriculum across the country, which will make the student competent to beat at national level in any exam or interview.

"The left front government had made the courses with a lot of modifications in NCERT syllabus, as a result of which students from Tripura were facing tough situation in country's competitive examinations. Despite good results they were not getting adequate employment in other parts of India. So, we have decided to consult academicians and institutions to introduce the syllabus at school level without any change in NCERT syllabus," Nath said.

The minister alleged that due to modifications in the syllabi, names of many great Indians were deleted and the names of many others were included, which were not desirable. But there is a provision for 10 per cent modification in the NCERT course to introduce local (the state) history, geography, events and issues in the syllabus.

Two days ago Chief Minister Biplab Deb had indicated that the government was in a process of adopting NCERT syllabus while alleging his predecessor of spreading Marxist propaganda over the last two decades.

"The Communists only wanted the people of Tripura to study Mao (Zedong) and forget our Hindu kings. They removed Mahatma Gandhi from textbooks of state board. The textbooks of Class IX-XII in Tripura featured the Russian and French revolutions, while some had pages devoted to the birth of cricket in England, Nazism and the rise of Adolf Hitler," Chief Minister mentioned.

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