Tripura LoP slams Tipra Motha over ‘Education Collapse’, blames Manikya dynasty for years of neglect

Tripura Leader of Opposition Jitendra Chaudhury on Saturday claimed that the Manikya dynasty had neglected real education for people of the state and slammed the Tipra Motha Party for destroying the education system in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC). 

He alleged that the party is more focused on script-related issues instead of developing the education system.

Chaudhury, who is also the CPI(M) Tripura state secretary, made the remarks while speaking on Jana Shiksha Diwas at Agartala.

He said that even in Tripura, movements like the Jana Shiksha Andolan were held, which led to the establishment of a large number of schools.

“Many students have emerged from such establishments and have done very well in their lives, making the state, country, and society proud. Jana Shiksha is different. During the princely regime, illiteracy and superstition engulfed the entire state. Despite having the desire to bring people out of such conditions, no steps were taken. They built Ujjayanta Palace and Neer Mahal. If they could bring masons from the British era to build such structures, then they could have at least provided education to a small section of the population, even if not the entire state due to limited communication. They did not try because education gives people courage to protest, consciousness, and freedom from superstition, and therefore it was consciously avoided,” said the CPI(M) leader.

He said that eleven youths, led by then Chief Ministers including Dasharath Dev and Nripen Chakraborty, formed the Jana Shiksha Andolan in 1948 and established 400 schools, most of them in tribal areas. This movement transformed the state’s socio-cultural space, politics, and education.

The CPI(M) leader further said that when Tipra Motha came to power in the TTAADC in 2021, they claimed that during the Left Front regime, the use of Bengali as a medium prevented tribal students from participating in competitive exams and caused them to lag behind.

“They then declared everything as English medium. But in the last four years, there has been no recruitment of teachers and no establishment of new schools. Instead, more than 1,000 schools have been closed down. In villages, around 95 percent of students depend on government schools, and these government schools are neither English nor Bengali medium and do not have teachers. Instead of developing education, they are concentrating on script issues. To hide their failure, they are diverting public attention to other topics,” he added.