Educational Status of the Thadous-Kukis of Manipur

Abstract

Formal education in Manipur was started by the colonialist during the later part of the twentieth century in the state of Manipur. However in spite of more than a century of its introduction, compared to the valley areas, most of the villages in the rural areas (tribal dominated villages) are even without primary school facilities. The present article looks into the educational development in the state of Manipur- governmental, aided as well as private educational institutions. The paper examine the educational status of Thadou (largest tribe) of Manipur by taking into account six Thadou villages situated in different geographical region of Sadar Hills sub-division of Senapati district. The study illustrates how lack of higher educational institution, poor educational infrastructure, remoteness and poverty etc has resulted in wide disparity in the level and quality of education between the valley and the hill areas. However, despite the differences and difficulties, most of the villagers in the study villages are literate. Both primary and secondary data are used for the study. Primary data are collected from field by administering schedule at the household level and secondary data are collected from reports, articles, magazine, and records. Data is tabulated and analysed accordingly for writing the paper.