Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Mother tongue illiteracy on the rise in State, warns ONV

— Photo: S. Gopakumar

Festival mood: A view of the cultural procession taken out on Saturday in connection with the Continuing Education Arts Festival organised by the Kerala State Literacy Mission in the city.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A phenomenon that can be termed ‘mother tongue illiteracy’ is on the rise in the State and in the country and this needs to the checked urgently, poet O.N.V. Kurup said here on Saturday.

He was speaking after inaugurating the State Continuing Education Arts Festival organised here by the Kerala State Literacy Mission.

There are many Malayali children these days who can converse in perfect English but cannot read or write Malayalam. For instance, such children cannot read the destination boards atop city buses. Such children cannot certainly be called illiterates.

But then, those children also need to be told that mother tongue illiteracy is to be feared more than death. “Such children may go on to write novels, win Booker prizes and go to the United Nations. But they cannot be called representatives of this country. Should not children know at least one Indian language, and that too their mother tongue?” he asked.

Those who have signed up for continuing education programmes can be happy at the fact that they too have an arts festival, he said. Such festivals are occasions for expressions of talent and capabilities, he added.

Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran presided over the inaugural ceremony. District Panchayat president Anavoor Nagappan; V. Sivankutty and G. Karthikeyan, MLAs and Planning Board member C. P. Narayanan were among those present.

The Arts Festival will be held at the Tagore Theatre and at the Cotton Hill Government GHSS in the city and there will be competitions in 27 events. Minister sPaloli Mohammed Kutty is scheduled to inaugurate the valedictory function of the Festival, here, on Sunday.

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