Dimapur, July 6 (MExN): Buttressing the call for affiliating schools in the Naga areas of Manipur to the Nagaland Board of School Education (NBSE), the Naga Mothers Association (NMA) has endorsed the demand of the Naga Students Federation (NSF) to that effect. Relatively, the NSF has served a strong warning to the Manipur Government against imposing its will on the Hill districts particularly the Nagas. Both the organizations have called for an active intervention of the Nagaland Government to ‘rehabilitate’ Naga students in the said areas.
It may be mentioned here that frontline Naga Students bodies in the Naga areas namely the All Naga Students Association Manipur (ANSAM), the Naga Students Union Chandel (NSUC) and the Tangkhul Students Union Imphal (TSUI) had resolved adoption of NBSE-prescribed textbooks in all schools in the aforementioned areas of Manipur (The Morung Express, July 5).
“The Naga Mothers Association expresses serious concern over the untold hardships being faced by the students of the four Naga hill districts i.e., Chandel, Senapati, Tamenglong and Ukhrul due to the imposition of syllabus which are completely inconsistent and alien to the Nagas” a release from Khesheli Z Chishi, President and Lochumbeni, Joint secretary stated. The NMA while expressing solidarity with the NSF’s demand felt that the present younger generation should be properly nurtured by imparting “the right patterns of education”. In view of this, the NMA urged the Government of Nagaland to exhibit “its large-heartedness” by expediting the process of affiliation of the private schools so that the students can continue to pursue their studies without fearing for their future.
Meanwhile, the NSF while warning the Manipur Government against imposing its will on the Nagas, has urged the Nagaland government to “find an option” to “accommodate” more than 4000 students at the earliest. The Federation held that the students should be “accommodated as Nagaland is the nearest Board for the aggrieved students”. It reminded that the students in the said areas have rejected Manipur Board of School Education (MBSE) prescribed textbooks and instead adopted NBSE books on their own volition.
The NSF further made clear that the Manipur Government’s stance would be given a fight. “The NSF strongly cautions the Manipur government to stop all forms of discrimination and imposition of their will on the students of the Hill districts particularly the Nagas. The Nagas cannot remain a silent spectator forever on their (Manipur Government) manipulative nature of imparting education with distorted history of the existing ethnic people on the grounds of minorities in Manipur state” an NSF statement said. “The Naga students of the Hill districts of Manipur shall never ever go back to study the Manipur Government’s imposed curriculum at any cost.
Hence the fate of these thousands of students rests upon the wisdom of the MHRD (Ministry of Human Resources & Development) who will be responsible for the massacre of their careers if the issue is not addressed before the expiry of the current academic session” the NSF cautioned.
“The Naga student fraternity is prepared to face any consequences to thwart any discriminative policy that is imposed on the minority Naga students. The Nagas and other minority ethnic groups of Manipur have suffered long enough in the hands of the majority Meiteis in different areas and such cultural imposition by the Meiteis on the pretext of school syllabi deserves utmost condemnation by the entire ethnic people of the world” the NSF asserted.
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