IMPHAL, March 30: The All Manipur Bengali Students’ Union (AMBSU), a lone Bengali students’ organisation of the State submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister through the Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), Jiribam today, urging to implement provision of Section 29 (2) (f) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009.
The memorandum stated that according to Article350-A of the Indian constitution, it shall be the endeavour of every State of every local authority within the State to provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups.
It pointed out that as the constitutional provisions have also given emphasis in the maintenance of Minority Language in the country whereas in the State of Manipur the education system up to primary level is implemented in English language and medium of instruction is English Language which is a foreign language and not the mother language of Bengali students.
In Manipur specifically in the Jiribam Sub- Division in Imphal East district which is adjacent to the Cachar district of Assam and where the majority citizens are Bengali speaking people, there are 46 primary schools in the absolutely Bengali inhabited areas wherein cent percent of the pupils are hailed from Bengali speaking families, it said.
The total number of pupils in those schools exceeds 5000 whereas there are only 50 teachers from Bengali speaking community in those schools while there are about 100 teachers from other linguistic communities and the non- Bengali teachers could not impart education through Bengali language and they remain bizarre to the tiny kids and the kids to remain bizarre to those teachers, it further pointed out.
The memorandum put forward with four major demands – medium of instruction in the lower primary schools of the Bengali inhabited areas must be Bengali language according to 29 (2) (f) of the Rights of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 regulation; for the pupils of the Bengali inhabited primary schools, text books must be published in Bengali language other than English language subjects; the State government must hold Bengali medium specific TET examination and also must employ at least 150 numbers of Bengali medium specific TET teachers in the said schools.
The memorandum further demanded that the eligible criteria for the Bengali medium specific TET examination must be 45 percent in the senior Secondary examination or equivalent examination or 45 percent marks in B.A/ B.Sc for those who had Bengali language as Major Indian Language subjects in HSLC or Senior Secondary Examination.
