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Sikkim Lok Sabha member, Indra Hang Subba has requested the Education Ministry to include Northeast history in the syllabus of schools. In the recent Parliament session, Sikkim Lok Sabha member apprised the House and the Education Ministry that history, geography and culture of the Northeast states are being neglected by the rest of the country.
Indra Hang Subba requested the Ministry to include, in the syllabus of schools, the Northeast states in a more elaborate manner.
“The syllabus given by the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) and other National Education boards do not give the history, culture and geography of Northeastern India. It seems the students from mainland India fail to understand where the Northeast states are and how they belong to India, so that the Northeastern states do not feel the exclusion from the rest of the country,” said Lok Sabha MP in his address.
For more than 70 years in the history of the independent Republic of India, the
history/histories of 45 million of its citizens living in 8 states of the Northeast region of the country have been absent from our school, college and university text books. Northeast India is home to over 272 ethnic groups and communities. However, there is no collective writing, publication or inclusion of its varied histories in the syllabus or the text books of the country's schools and universities. This ignorance or lack of awareness is one of the major causes of the wrong perception about people from the region. This is one of the main reasons that people of the northeast region are discriminated against when they travel for study and work to different parts of India.
While supporting the demand for grants for the Ministry of Education 2021-22, Indra Hang stressed on the importance of upgrading existing colleges and empowering them with enough logistics to run post-graduate and PhD programs.
“There is also a need for creating better facilities in the schools of rural areas”- Indra Subba
Further, he stated that the empowering education institutions will help in creating stand alone autonomous institutions as envisioned in National Education Policy. He pointed out that the Gross Enrolment Ratio in ST community is just 17 percent as compared to 23 percent for SC and 26 percent in national average. He also requested the Ministry to consider establishing one such institution for research and development.
Sikkim MP informed the house that 46 percent of Sikkim’s land is protected and further requested the Ministry to consider an establishment of an institution for research and development on forestry and wildlife studies.
“46 percent of our State’s land is protected. And unfortunately, there’s not a single institution on forestry and wildlife studies”- Indra Hang.
While addressing the NITI Aayog’s sixth Governing Council meeting on a virtual platform, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the two North East Chief Ministers also laid emphasised about this.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma said that there is a need to include more information on the culture and history of the Northeastern region in the national syllabus of various classes.
“If this is done, it would help to promote national integration,” Conrad Sangma
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu said that the Centre must include Northeast history and culture in the national curriculum of various stages.
Khandu justified that with this, apart from awareness of the rich culture and history of the Northeastern states at the national level, it would reinforce national integration in the true spirit of “Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat”.
Sandeep K Rai
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