Tripura: Biplab Deb government to do away with Left-era school syllabus

The Biplab Deb government in Tripura government has decided to discontinue the school syllabus introduced by the previous Left Front regime and follow NCERT textbooks and CBSE syllabus from the next academic session. State Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath on Friday said information regarding the new move was given to the state legislative assembly.

"The government would introduce 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," Nath said.

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"The move was taken because the students in our state are lagging behind the standard of the country. We want them to be as competitive as students of other states," Nath added.

He alleged that the previous Left Front regime, which ruled the state for 25 years, had indulged in criminalisation of the school curriculum by teaching wrong lessons to students.

A team of NCERT experts is scheduled to arrive in Agartala on December 3 to impart a three-month-long training to the teachers about the new syllabus.

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Kalyani Roy, the Chief Whip of the assembly and BJP MLA, had recently raised a question during Zero Hour in the House on a Class 9 test question paper of a government school in Tripura’s Unakoti district, which asked students to write a short note on the ruling BJP.

Images of the question paper had gone  viral on social media earlier this month.

Nath said the education department examined the question paper and found that the syllabus included a chapter on electoral politics and political parties.

"I was surprised by media reports on this issue. I inquired and found that the syllabus has got a chapter on the BJP, the Congress, the CPI(M), the CPI etc. School textbooks have also got mention of rigging and booth capturing," the minister said.

(With PTI inputs)