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Thursday 25 August 2011

Varsity wants Kokbarak in college level

http://www.tripurainfo.in/admin/ArchiveDet.aspx?WhatId=10036 


Agartala, Aug 24, 2011 : Even as many feel deprived at the way Kokobarak study gets stagnant beyond primary school in the study due to lack of opportunities Tripura central university mooted the idea of introducing the subject at the college level.

The varsity informed the state government’s higher education department of the decision. However, there so far there is required infrastructure for introducing the course at college level.

After the decision was taken at Academic Council the matter was conveyed to the president of the Indigenous Women’s Federation (IWF), front organization of the regional Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT), by Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Arunodhoy Saha.

TU sources said, a delegation of IWF headed by their president Patalkanya Debbarma had met in a deputation with VC on Monday last; they raised the issue of 'Kokborok' study at college level.

TU authorities informed the delegation team that way back on June 28, 2009 the university academic council had decided to introduce Kokborok study at college level as elective subject and also informed the authorities of all seventeen degree colleges in the state as well as the Higher Education department of the decision including rules , regulations , syllabus and course structure.

But no follow up action has so far been taken' said TU sources and added that the university was keen to see study of 'Kokborok' as optional subject at the undergraduate level also.

Patalkanya Debbarma said that there is only one school in Tripura, Ratanpur higher secondary school in Khowai subdivision, where the medium of instruction is 'Kokborok' from class one to twelve but in all other schools in areas dominated by indigenous people 'Kokborok' is studied only up to class five.

'Since students have to compulsorily switch over to Bengali or English as medium of instruction from class six many guardians do not want their wards to study Kokborok at school level at all because switch-over at a late stage creates lot of problems.

The study of Kokborok has become a major issue of controversy in the state over the past five decades as the language did not have a script till the early seventies. Tripura's first language act passed in 1964 recognized only English and Bengali as official languages on the ground that the language spoken by 31percent of the state's population did not have a script . Two Calcutta-based linguists late Kumud Kundu Chowdhury and Dr Subhas Chatterjee devised a script for Kokborok and the language was introduced as medium of instruction for indigenous students up to class three since 1973 but no major progress was made. Even the recognition to the language as an official language accorded by the left front government in 1979 did not improve things as despite passing the relevant act the left front took two full decades till 1999 to frame rules for usage of kokborok as medium of instruction and also for official purposes.

Apart from alleged official apathy the language has also been dogged by a script controversy with votaries of modified Bengali script and Roman script refusing to budge an inch from their positions. 'Now the language is being used through modified Bengali script as also in Roman script but the issue has eluded a solution so far ; in this atmosphere of uncertainty the study of the language is suffering though lot of literature is being composed in Kokborok ; famous poet Chandra Kanta Murasingh has won the prestigious 'Bhasa Samman' award given by Sahitya Academy as a poet of Kokborok language' said sources in Kokbork literary society.

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