Imphal, Feb. 12: Tribal students refused to accept the textbooks prescribed by the Board of Secondary Education Manipur (BSEM), saying the introduction was too late for this academic session.
The board introduced a fresh set of common textbooks for Class I to V under a new common syllabus for all schools, including missionary and private schools, from this academic session after strong pressure from several students organisations.
Earlier, private schools throughout the state used to prescribe their own textbooks, while the government schools had common textbooks. But the latest move has kicked up a storm of controversy with student organisations rejecting the new textbooks saying they were full of mistakes and misleading statements.
All Tribal Students? Union, Manipur (ATSUM) today met the school education director, N.K. Shimrayto to register its protest. The delegation urged the director to cancel the order to teach fresh batches of textbooks in the hills, maintaining that majority of the schools in the hills had already started their academic session with their own textbooks.
Speaking to the media, spokesperson for the tribal student?s organisation Joseph H. Hmar said the concerned zonal education officers issued the order on January 20 to teach the new textbooks. ?The order came very late as almost all the schools in the hills have already begun their classes,? he said.
The spokesperson said a majority of the parents in the hills was poor and they would not be able to afford to buy two sets of textbooks in a year for their children. The union demanded that the order for teaching the new textbooks should be cancelled immediately, at least for the hill areas. If any attempt was made to forcibly introduce them, a series of agitation would be launched against such a move, the spokesperson warned.
This demand came as an added headache for the board as it has come under heavy flak from students organisations like the All Manipur Students Union (Amsu), Democratic Students Alliance of Manipur (Desam) and Manipuri Students? Federation (MSF).
Alleging that the textbooks were full of mistakes and lessons that could mislead the students, the students? organisations demanded that the textbooks should be introduced after rectification.
The chairman of the board, Salam Nabachadra, however, rejected the allegations by the students? organisations. He insisted that barring some typing mistakes, there were no conceptual errors. The typing mistakes were because of the limited time given to the board for producing the new books, he added.
But the students? organisations refused to buy the explanation. The Amsu began a two-day conference today to check the mistakes and also correct them, if required.
Experts and teachers are attending the two-day conference. Amsu said the recommendations of the deliberation would be the final and it would take the next course of action accordingly.
On the other hand, Desam served an ultimatum to the board and the government to bring out fresh books after making the necessary corrections.