Tripura assembly winter session: Education Minister says CBSE to replace ‘red-washed’ syllabus

On its first day of the three-day assembly session, 10 bills were placed along with four ordinances on Tripura Cooperative Societies

On its first day of the three-day assembly session, 10 bills were placed along with four ordinances on Tripura Cooperative Societies. (Source: Wikipedia)

The winter session of Tripura assembly commenced Friday with heated arguments between the treasury and opposition benches on politicisation of school course curriculum and syllabus. This is the 12th assembly debate of the state.

The Chief Whip of the assembly and BJP MLA Kalyani Roy, raised a question during Zero Hour in the House on a ninth standard class test question paper of a government school in Tripura’s Unakoti district, which asked students to write a short note on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Images of the question paper of Srirampur Suryamani Memorial Higher Secondary School at Kailashahar in Unakoti district went viral on social media earlier this month.

In his reply, Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath said there was no question of ‘saffronisation’ in the question paper as existing course curriculum and syllabus itself include a chapter on ‘electoral politics’ where students are being taught about political parties like Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, All India Forward Bloc, Indian National Congress and BJP.

“I was stunned by media reports on this issue. I enquired and found that the syllabus has got a chapter on BJP, Congress, CPI (M), CPI etc. School textbooks have also got lessons on rigging and booth capturing. Narrow politics was introduced in textbooks. We shall introduce complete NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) textbooks and CBSE syllabus from next academic year,” Nath said in the House.

He also said that the Left rulers made a ‘red-wash’ of school syllabus by teaching incorrect lessons to students over the years.

Nath also pointed out other errors in Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) approved school textbooks stating a book published in 2016, which claims Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) has 35 wards, while it was extended to 49 wards in 2014 itself.

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A team of NCERT experts are scheduled to arrive in Tripura on December 3 to train teachers about the new syllabus. Teachers would be given three months of training to adapt to the new system.

On its first day of the three-day assembly session, 10 bills were placed along with four ordinances on Tripura Cooperative Societies, targetting delivery of financial and other subsidies through Aadhaar, Goods and Service Taxes (GST) and an ordinance on Tripura Road Development Cess.