The Manipur University is continuously providing the best possible support to students displaced as a result of the ethnic violence in the State, the Education Ministry insisted in the Lok Sabha on December 11, even as an association of displaced students was last week in the Supreme Court, seeking appropriate directions to facilitate the continuation of their education - seven months into the conflict.
The Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar was responding to a question from Manipur MP Lohro S. Pfoze, who had asked for details on the number of displaced students and the steps being taken by the government to relocate or transfer them to other Central universities in States neighbouring Manipur.
In response, Mr. Sarkar said that Education is a subject under the Concurrent List and that Manipur University is taking all possible steps to facilitate education for displaced students in the State by allowing them to continue classes online or offline from any other affiliated college within the State.
“Manipur University has allowed students to attend classes and appear in the Online and/or Offline University examinations in any affiliated college of their choice within the State, as per the convenience of the students.
“The University has been continuously providing best possible supports in terms of uploading the class notes to the website of the university, sending study materials through email/WhatsApp, making phone calls, conducting Google classrooms etc to all students who are not able to attend the University. Further, Manipur University has also allowed students to transfer credits from one affiliated college to another so as to make them enable to study in any college of their choice located in their district, within the State,” the Ministry’s answer said.
Gaps in the system
Mr. Sarkar’s answer, however, did not mention any details on the number of students displaced due to the conflict, where they currently were and measures to allow students outside the State to continue their education through other Central Universities.
Before the Supreme Court, the Manipur University EIMI Welfare Society submitted last week that there were currently at least 284 students outside the State who needed to be relocated to other Central Universities to be able to continue their education.
The Bench comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra had noted in a December 4 order that in addition to allowing these students the option of taking online classes from Manipur University, authorities concerned were temporarily allowing them to be enrolled at either Assam University in Silchar or the North-Eastern Hills University in Shillong.
However, the Bench had said that it would get the SC-appointed committee to look into the issues of displaced students in detail and explore a better option in their next report.
Ever since the conflict began in May, the Scheduled Tribe Kuki-Zo students who had to flee the Imphal Valley have had their education stopped abruptly — with no way of going back to the Valley for fear of their lives and no means to continue their education remotely for the first few months of the conflict.
Even as the Valley universities and institutes resumed online classes, Kuki-Zo students in the Hill districts maintained that they were being discriminated against by not being allowed to take classes or sit for examinations. One such complaint from medical students of Manipur resulted in the National Medical Commission issuing permissions to the State to facilitate their classes and examinations temporarily from the Churachandpur Medical College campus.
However, these directions came only at the end of November and protests over this by various college students have been regular in the Hill districts.
