The Chief Minister of Tripura, Manik Saha, announced on Tuesday that the state government will write a letter to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) requesting them to permit tribal students to write their answers in both Bengali and Roman script for the ‘Kokborok’ subject examination.

The ‘Kokborok’ language, which is the second official language of Tripura after Bengali, is the mother tongue of the majority of the tribals, who constitute one third of Tripura’s little over four million population.

During the ongoing Assembly session, members of the Opposition Tipra Motha Party (TMP) and the CPI-M have raised an issue regarding the upcoming examinations. They have been requesting a provision to allow students to write in both Bengali and Roman script. The primary goal of this provision is to ensure that the academic future of around 5,000 tribal students is not compromised.

During the third day of the Winter Session, which was held on Tuesday, Animesh Debbarma from TMP brought up the issue concerning students in CBSE-affiliated schools in Tripura who are appearing for the Kokborok subject. He requested that students should have the option to write their answers in either Bengali or Roman script, similar to the examinations conducted by the Tripura Board of Secondary Education.

Approximately 5,000 tribal students from various schools are set to appear for the Kokborok language subject. However, they currently have no option but to write in Bengali, a language that many of them may not be comfortable with.

Supporting Debbarma’s stance, former minister and CPI-M legislature party leader Jitendra Chowdhury pointed out that in the state’s education system, there is already an option to write answers for Kokborok subjects in both Roman and Bengali, from primary-level classes to university levels.

He highlighted that when given the option, 99 per cent of students prefer to write in Roman script and so the government can at least write to the CBSE for providing both options.

The Chief Minister, who also holds the Education portfolio, informed the Assembly that a three-member committee led by former MLA Atul Debbarma, has been assigned to work out the issue.

The government is awaiting the committee’s report before taking further action, he said.

The TMP has also been spearheading agitations across Tripura demanding the introduction of the Roman script for Kokborok.

For over five decades, there has been a debate over the use of the Bengali and Roman scripts for the Kokborok language. While some Kokborok speakers favour Bengali, the majority of the tribal intellectuals and academicians advocate the Roman script. Since 1988, two commissions have been set up on the issue under tribal leader Shyama Charan Tripura and linguist and academician Pabitra Sarkar.

A leader of the TMP stated that Kokborok is the native language of the tribal people, and it belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family. It is close to other languages spoken in the northeastern region like Bodo, Garo, and Dimasa. (Edited)