BSEM responsible for declining students' interest in MIL Manipuri: DESAM
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, January 31 2013:
Democratic Students' Alliance of Manipur (DESAM) charged Board of Secondary Education Manipur (BOSEM) for not taking initiative to introduce Meetei Mayek in CBSE schools and held it responsible for the decreasing number of students opting Manipuri as Major Indian Language (MIL) subject.
In a statement by its Deputy Secretary Publicity and Propaganda Paikhomba Wahengbam, DESAM said that a special team of DESAM, who conducted survey across the state found that issuing of photo copy of old Manipuri MIL text books to students by some Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) school authorities in the state as BOSEM did not provide their textbooks as per the new syllabus.
Following the 2005 Meetei Mayek agitation jointly launched by Meetei Eyek Erol Loinasillon Apunba Lup (MEELAL) and DESAM, the state government and BOSEM changed the script of school text books into Meetei Mayek.
Unluckily some of the students who studied class I in the year 2005 and are now in class IX are studying MIL Manipuri text books in Bengali script as BOSEM did not provide their MIL Manipuri books in Meetei Mayek script.
Due to the negligence from the side of BOSEM, the number of student who opted MIL Manipuri has decreased significantly.
Earlier, around 40,000 students took MIL Manipuri in their class IX and appeared almost the same number in class X examination but it has reduced to 18,00-19,000, Paikhomba pointed out.
Drawing the attention of Education Minister, the Deputy Secretary Publicity and Propaganda urged Manipur Government and BOSEM to provide an opportunity to learn Meetei Mayek by students of CBSE affiliated schools in the state by issuing MIL Manipuri text book written in Meetei Mayek.