In the face of severe protests from different student organizations, civil societies and political parties, the Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) said it would allow both Roman and Bengali scripts as the script of choice for writing answer scripts of Kokborok paper in the board examinations scheduled to be held in 20 days.
When contacted, TBSE president Dr. Dhananjoy Gonchoudhury said a delegation of 131 faculty members from colleges and universities of Tripura visited him and provided a written assurance that they would extend a hand of help to evaluate Kokborok answer scripts written in Roman script if they are asked.
The development comes after the TBSE chief had earlier said the board has evaluators who are comfortable with evaluating answer scripts in Bengali script.
While the TBSE chief said he was quoted wrongly in media reports about his comments on the choice of Roman script for writing answers of the Kokborok paper, he admitted he had instructed examination center in-charges to ask candidates to use Bengali script.
The state education board had also said earlier that the state government is in communication with New Delhi for clearance and guidelines on the use of Roman script for Kokborok papers.
However, without any guidelines yet, the TBSE president said Roman script would be allowed. “The exams start in about 20 days. We can’t have the students wait in anxiety forever. We shall arrange for evaluation of answers in both scripts, no matter whatever guidelines come from Delhi,” said Dr Dhananjoy Gonchoudhury.
Meanwhile, the state’s prime opposition TIPRA Motha founder Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma said the board reversed its move due to unity and collective protest of different tribal bodies. He also said tribals should stick together, irrespective of getting divided on political lines.
He said a concerted conspiracy was hatched in the form of denying Roman script in Kokborok papers so that tribal students could be kept illiterate and, therefore, ineligible for jobs later on.
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