Northeast Twitter Storm: NCERT says Northeast already finds 'adequate space' in its Publications

New Delhi: After students from the northeast participated in a Twitter storm, to seek more focus on the northeastern region in the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) curriculum, the government organisation said that the northeast already finds "adequate space" in its publications.

Over 30 universities, student organisations from the northeast, key politicians and personalities from the region came together to demand that chapters on the history and culture of the northeast be included in the (NCERT) curriculum.

A series of tweets on Saturday from the NCERT's official account said that a "depiction of North East in NCERT's Publication: A book on North East India – People, History and Culture has been brought out in 2016. The Social Science Textbooks of NCERT for classes VI, VII, X and XII have interwoven contents related to North East in a different form." The thread continued, which tagged the official handles of the Ministry of Education, Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, the Union Education Minister, among others, "At present, contents with regard to North Eastern states finds adequate space in NCERT's publications for its use by students & teachers."

According to the reports, the virtual campaign on June 4 had students, as well as public personalities including Indian athlete Hima Das, MP Shashi Tharoor, and Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi, tweeting with the hashtags #AchapterforNE and #NortheastMatters to demand that a mandatory chapter on the history and culture of the northeast be included in the syllabus.

It is to be mentioned that the topics trended on the number two and three spots for two hours on Friday. About NCERT's response, Debonil Baruah, Advisor, North East Students' Union (NESU), Vadodara, one of the organisers of the Twitter storm, said that while they were aware of and appreciated the supplementary reader published by NCERT in 2016, the demand was of "a mandatory chapter to be included in the main syllabus."

In 2017, the NCERT published 'North East India — People, History and Culture', a supplementary textbook for students from Class 9 to 12. Baruah asked, "The fact is that it is supplementary and not part of the main curriculum. Publishing the reader is well and good, but what's the point if people are not reading it?"

As per the reports, the organisers of the Twitter storm are now going to write a memorandum to the Education Ministry in consultation with professors and intellectuals from the region. Baruah said, "In our memorandum, we will give constructive suggestions. As I said earlier, this kind of racism can be solved only through education. We will also approach MPs from the Northeast for support."

On Saturday, Arunachal Pradesh MLA Ninong Ering wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Dr Nishank reiterating the demand, "This is my humble request not only as a representative but as a common citizen of Northeast India. This one step can lead to the elimination of frequent cases of racial discrimination against us."

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