Baishali Mukherjee

Accepting the gap in  teacher and student ratio in Tripura, Chief Minister Manik Saha, who also holds the Education portfolio, on January 2, said, “We are constantly reviewing the implementation of National Education Policy envisaged to well equip our students. There has been a big gap between teachers and students (in Tripura). In many schools, there have been no headmasters. I have already spoken to the secretaries of the education and finance departments to overcome the shortage.”

The chief minister also added that his government is taking concerted efforts to ensure quality education to the students. “Earlier, we used to follow the syllabi of West Bengal Board and Calcutta University which resulted in the students having to study more to compete in national or state-level examinations. Now, this problem has been removed. The government has already introduced NCERT syllabus giving the state’s students an edge to compete in national-level examinations,” he shared , while speaking at an event in Gomati district.

Saha also spoke about the recent developments in the education sector in the northeastern state. “At present, the state has six private universities in addition to state government-run MBB University and Tripura University. Now, the students from outside the state are coming to study in the northeastern state”, he said.  Tripura University is run by the central government. Saha also highlighted distribution of bicycles among the female students studying in IX free of cost.  “To encourage female students, the education department has distributed 1.30 lakh bicycles among those studying class IX in the last year. For a student, a bicycle means a lot because she can go to school easily,” he said.

It is pertinent to note here that a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Tripura High Court underscoring the need for effective safety measures in the public schools of tripura. The petitioner raised alarms regarding sheer lack of basic safety infrastructure, like CCTV cameras in the schools.

As directed by the high court, the state government of Tripura submitted an additional counter-affidavit, which shows that only 218 of the 4,905 schools of the state have functional CCTV cameras. However, Manik Saha led BJP government informed that safety guidelines under the New Education Policy (NEP), 2020, have been sent to District Education Officers as well as the school management bodies.

“The state is committed to enhancing safety measures in schools and has initiated a phased installation of CCTV cameras. Privately managed schools have been issued guidelines under the NEP, and further deliberations will be held regarding their compliance with safety measures,” shared the Government Advocate during a hearing. The next hearing of the case under the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice Biswajit Palit, is on February 6. The court has instructed the petitioner to submit a detailed argument on the matter. The Advocate General also assured the bench that the matter of school safety, including the installation of CCTV cameras, would be brought to the attention of the appropriate authorities for necessary action.

Also read: Tripura: NCERT team to review Vidya Pravesh implementation