Agartala, May 17
As the demand for replying CBSE’s newly introduced subject Kakborak, Tripura’s most used tribal language, in Roman script in addition to Bengali had flairs up across the state, on Wednesday a delegation of the Opposition TIPRA Motha met Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha and appealed him to take immediately steps towards resolving the issue said Opposition Leader Animesh Debbarma.
Speaking to reporters during a press conference in his chamber in the Assembly, Debbarma said that during their discussion which was more than one and a half hour, the CM had assured them that very soon a committee with all the stake holders will be formed to discuss and take their views in order to sortout the issue.
Meantime, Debbarma alleged that the issue had come up due to misinformation provided to CBSE by the Tripura Education Department and on the basis of input provided by the Director of Directorate of Kakborak and other minority languages.
Debbarma said that as per the Tripura Official Language (Amendment) Act 1979, and by which Kokborak was recognised an official language, there is no mention regarding the use of script for the Kakborak language.
He added to find a solution to this more than four decades old pending Kokborak script controversy between use of Bengali or Roman, three committee were also formed inorder to sorting out the script issue and reportedly all three committees had suggested for Roman script but the then government did not make these reports and their recommendations public.
The Opposition Leader demanded to make public the commission’s reports.
Debbarma said that he has no objection to Bengali script for Kakborak but his only request is to also add the option for providing question papers as well as answering in Roman script as majority of the Kokborak students who have the option for writing in either of the two scripts preferred for Roman script.
He also quoted a recent data provided in the form of RTI reply to the number of students in 22 colleges across Tripura having Kokborok as a language and it revealed that in the year 2021-22 out of total 9147 students who appeared for the Kokborok subject, 9143 wrote in Roman script and only four replied in Bengali script.
The Opposition Leader also said that in the Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) and other examinations in the state the Kokborak subject question papers are bilingual – Bengali and Roman, students are also allowed to answer in either of the two languages and so the same pattern should also be followed in CBSE examination and moreover, majority of the CBSE affiliated schools in the state of Tripura are English medium so if the students do not have the option to reply in Roman script then they faces problem like what happened this year and so he is hopeful that the CM shall give priority to the matter and resolve the issue at the earliest.
