TIPRA Motha founder alleges invigilators’ denial of translation support for Kokborok exam papers | Education
Almost a year after row over script of choice for Kokborok language, lingua franca of majority of tribal population of Tripura, TIPRA Motha party founder and royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarma alleged that invigilators in some schools denied to translate question paper for Kokborok examination that was prepared in Bengali script, further claiming that many students submitted blank paper as they could not read Bengali.
In a video message, Debbarma said that the state government had given an assurance a year ago that the invigilators would provide translation support to the students during Madhyamik or Class 10 board examinations who could not read Bengali, and that the students would be allowed to write the Kokborok paper in Roman script.
“I have received a phone call this morning (Monday) and was informed that the Kokborok question paper for board exams was prepared in Bengali. Many of the students had to submit their answer scripts blank as they couldn’t read Bengali”.
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However, he claimed that tribal students were provided translation support for Kokborok paper in many examination centres this year, but two-three centres didn’t follow it.
The Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) conducted Kokborok and other languages examinations on February 27 for Class 12, and February 28 for Class 10.
Pradyot, on March 8 this year, sought intervention of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in taking urgent action on the long-lasting row over introduction of Roman script for Kokborok language in the midst of the ongoing TBSE and CBSE-run board examinations.
He said that he would not sit silent on the matter and would meet Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha, and ask him to start a probe into the matter to find out which teachers did not follow the instruction and why.
The TIPRA Motha founder also asked his party legislators to raise the issue during the coming budget session of Assembly beginning from March 21 as well as the Member of District Council (MDC) to raise the issue in their respective areas.
“I have talked to leaders of the Twipra Students Federation and TISF ( students’ organization of the party) , MLA Biswajit Debbarma and asked to give a report on the issue immediately. I have got reports there was non-cooperation from the side of teachers towards the students. We are in an alliance but it doesn’t mean that if someone disobeys instructions locally, we shall stay silent”, he said.
Notably, the TBSE chief could not be reached over phone for his reaction on the issue.
Kokborok got its recognition as an official state language in 1979 for the first time. Two commissions led by former legislator Shyama Charan Tripura in 1900 and linguist Pabitra Sarkar in 2004 were constituted but the debate over the script of the language is yet to be solved.
The row over Kokborok script started last year January after TBSE chief Dr. Dhananjoy Gonchoudhury asked all the examination center in-charges to allow only Bengali script for writing Kokborok paper in the Class 12 and 10 board examinations scheduled to begin from March 1 and 2 due to insufficient qualified evaluators to check answer copies written in Roman script.
This invited protests from TIPRA Motha and other different social organizations after which the TBSE chief said that the students would be allowed to write in the script of their preference.
Later, Gonchoudhury was instructed by higher authorities to continue the board exam by only allowing Bengali script till the Central Board of Secondary Education responded.
Finally, the state government intervened and said that the examinations would be conducted in both Bengali and Roman scripts.
