Agaratla: Tripura’s royal scion and TIPRA Motha chief Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma has urged Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to take immediate action to permit the use of the Roman script for the Kokborok language in Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) examinations.
He highlighted the longstanding concerns of the Kokborok-speaking community regarding the script used in academic assessments.
You can conclude if I am still speaking for our people or not ! One day we will take a step which may surprise politicians but will surely win the hearts of our people . For me ppl will always come first pic.twitter.com/haTP1k7Nyq
— Pradyot_Tripura (@PradyotManikya) March 7, 2025
In a letter to the minister, he stated, “I write to you with utmost urgency on behalf of the Kokborok-speaking community of Tripura to address a critical and long-standing issue that undermines academic fairness in TBSE and CBSE examinations.”
He highlighted that despite repeated demands, the issue has been ignored by authorities for years.
“Kokborok, a significant Tibeto-Burmese language spoken by the indigenous Tiprasa people, is not only the state language of Tripura but also an essential part of our cultural identity. However, the unresolved debate over the script in which it is taught and examined has caused persistent confusion and disadvantage for students,” Debbarma wrote.
He pointed out that while students have been given the choice to write their answers in either Bengali or Roman script, the question papers are consistently printed in Bengali script, disregarding the preference of most Kokborok-speaking students.
Debbarma stated that Roman script is more widely used and preferred by the majority of Kokborok speakers due to its compatibility with the language’s phonetics and vocabulary.
He recalled last year’s decision by the Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) to mandate the Bengali script for writing exams led to widespread backlash.
While the state government intervened temporarily, he said the issue remains unresolved, continuing to put Kokborok-speaking students at a disadvantage.
Debbarman noted that the problem resurfaced during the recent TBSE Class X and XII exams held on February 27 and 28, causing distress among students. With the CBSE Class X exams scheduled for March 17, he urged immediate corrective action.
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“The absence of question papers in Roman script directly hampers students’ performance in exams. The recent TBSE Class X and XII board exams already saw frustration among students due to this issue. With CBSE Class X exams approaching, immediate action is needed to ensure Kokborok question papers are available in both Bengali and Roman scripts,” he stated.
