In a significant decision the BJP-ruled Tripura Government has conveyed to the HRD Ministry to do away with the Left Front-oriented secondary school syllabus and follow the curriculum on the CBSE pattern.
The State Government has informed the HRD Ministry that school-going students would be taught from National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks. A team of NCERT experts will be sent during the first week of December to impart a three-month-long training to the teachers about the new syllabus.
Shortly after coming to power in March this year ending the 25-year uninterrupted rule of the CPI(M)-led Left Front, the BJP Government had set up an expert committee on the change of school syllabus.
Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb told The Pioneer that to impart quality education in the State, NCERT syllabus would be introduced in the 2019 academic session. "The committee set up by my Government has recommended for adopting the CBSE and NCERT curriculum and we are keen on imparting the same," Deb said.
The state education department would introduce the NCERT textbooks and CBSE syllabus from the next academic session in place of the present curriculum prescribed by the State Council of Educational Research and Training.
"Complete NCERT textbooks and CBSE syllabus from next academic year will be introduced in the schools of Tripura because the students are lagging behind the standard of the country. They should be as competitive as students of other States," said a senior HRD Ministry official.
The BJP-Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) combine Government had set up an expert committee on the change of school syllabus early this year. The panel recommended NCERT curriculum along with the implementation of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus across all Government and Government-aided schools in the State.
Recently a controversy erupted in which a school in Unakoti district had asked class nine students to write a short note on the ruling BJP in an examination. The question paper had gone viral on social media over the matter.
The Education Department examined the question paper and found that the syllabus included a chapter on electoral politics and political parties. As per media reports then the syllabus has a chapter on the BJP, the Congress, the CPI(M), the CPI etc and the textbooks also got mention of rigging and booth capturing to the surprise of educationist involved in the change of education pattern in the State.
"The previous Left Front regime had indulged in criminalization of the school curriculum by teaching wrong lessons to students," alleged an expert involved in the process during the last nine months.