SHILLONG, June 8: Union Minister of State for Education RK Ranjan Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan have requested scholars and academicians to chalk out a list of at least 100 unsung heroes of Northeast India.
“There is a need to acknowledge the unsung heroes who are not recorded but had played an important role in India’s freedom movement and even fought against the British regime,” Singh said while addressing the gathering during a discussion on the theme ‘Educational Vision for North East India and NEP 2020’ organised by Asian Confluence here on Wednesday.
According to him, it is the duty of the academicians and scholars of the state to find out about these unsung heroes and write a detailed history of such heroes so that they can be included in the academic curriculum.
He further said that even the Council of Historical Research (Northeastern Branch) is involved in this effort.
Singh said that there is an attempt to find out details about unknown soldiers and include them by restructuring their story.
To a question that heroes from the Northeastern region did not feature even after the NCERT had revised its curriculum, he said that right from the beginning, the NCERT had reserved 75% space for the national curriculum and the rest for local inputs.
“Sadly our local scholars don’t put in enough effort to be creative about their own histories and prefer to cut and paste the inputs from others. Even in my state of Manipur, the persons who are handling the SCERT curriculum just cut and paste inputs from other states,” the Union MoS said.
He also mentioned that even the dresses worn by local tribals of the region are omitted and they are shown as wearing sarees.
“This was not done by the state but by our scholars,” Singh said.
He however requested the academicians and scholars to come forward and list the names of those who were left out from the composite history of the country.
“This is the right time to rewrite our local histories and highlight it at the national level. We need to find out the many unsung heroes who have been forgotten and feature them in the NE sector of the freedom movement. We can at least contribute to the national composite history,” he said.
Meanwhile, he observed that the NEP 2020 has clearly spelt out that schools and institutions up to Class XII should have smart classrooms besides introduction of virtual and digital lab.
Singh further said that as per the advice of the Prime Minister, the printing content should be meaningful and precise while the explanation and referencing of the content will be in digital mode. “It should be a hybrid type,” he said.
Singh said that the NEP 2020 is based on the four pillars of equality, equity, affordable and employable.
Later, Singh interacted with a vibrant audience comprising directors of IIM Shillong, NEIGRIHMS, NIFT, NIT, CIEFL, IHM, NCC, ICSSR, teachers of various colleges and schools, individuals from NEHU etc.
