Tura, Dec 15: The TMC in Garo Hills on Friday accused the MDA Government of blindly patronizing NCERT Textbooks with regard to the education of the state’s students, while at the same time questioning why it was shirking the responsibility of developing its own curriculum.
“The Education Minister and MDA government claim that using NCERT textbooks automatically gives students an edge in competitive exams. Seriously, where’s the proof to back that up? It feels like they’re just trying to dodge their responsibility of improving our own curriculum and textbooks. Why can’t they prioritize the development of our own board’s curriculum instead of blindly following NCERT? Don’t we deserve an education system that meets the needs and aspirations of our students? It is high time the government steps up and tackles this issue head-on with real solutions, instead of hiding behind empty claims,” party youth leader Richard Marak said.
Richard said that he was in full support of party Parliamentary leader Mukul Sangma’s opposition to the state government’s decision to adopt NCERT textbooks pointing out it was absurd and a decision that could potentially deprive the people of a quality education both now and in the future.
We should take pride in having our own board of education and the freedom to design a syllabus that is ahead of the pack. It’s contradictory to fight for the inclusion of our (Garo and Khasi) languages in the Constitution while relying on ready-made books from NCERT. Our local authors and writers deserve recognition, and we should value the importance of our own curriculum,” he added, while urging the people to unite for the cause.