Language, a matter of pride
JAIDEEP SHENOY
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Promoting Konkani and Tulu languages for students is now under way.
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Photo : R. Eswarraj
Making it possible: Eric Ozario
Two language academies in this part of the state, namely the Karnataka Konkani and Tulu Sahitya Academy have taken up a crusade to promote their respective languages. While these academies conduct a host of activities related to the language, their efforts at promoting the respective languages is aimed primarily at students from communities who speak the language, especially those in the higher primary level. While the Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy’s efforts in i
ntroducing Konkani as the optional third language in school for students from the Std. VI onwards has borne fruit after more than three years of ground work, the Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy too has intensified its efforts for Tulu.
The State Government has given the go ahead for introduction of Konkani as one of the optional subjects for the third language.
For Eric Ozario, President of Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy, formal introduction of Konkani as an optional language in schools is dream come true.
Although his predecessors in the Academy took up the cause with the government, the process got a fillip once Mr. Ozario took over as the president two years ago. Despite various hurdles, Mr. Ozario is happy that Konkani will now be taught to students in a formal set up.
Trained teachers
The Academy under its own initiative had introduced the language outside the formal education set up last year. It had trained teachers to teach the language and 1,586 students from 58 schools in the three coastal districts of Karnataka came forward to learn the language. Mr. Ozario expects 3,000 students in 100 schools to learn Konkani this year.
This effort on the part of Mr. Ozario has spurred his counterpart heading the Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy M. K. Seetharam Kulal to promote Tulu as an optional third language for students.
The Tulu Sahitya Academy has already prepared text books for the purpose with assistance from the Directorate of State Education Research and Training, Bangalore, Mr. Kulal says.
The Tulu Sahitya Academy is awaiting government’s nod for formal introduction of Tulu as an optional language in schools, he adds. In fact, it is on the direction of Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore that the Academy has gone ahead with this project. We felt bad that Tulu is yet to be included in to the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution and this held us back all these years, he notes.
The inclusion of Tulu would give students the choice to study any one of the 10 languages including Sanskrit, Hindi, French, Urdu, Konkani and so on.
Both Mr. Ozario and Mr. Kulal are of the firm belief that teaching either Konkani or Tulu in a formal set up is the ideal way to ensure that these languages are handed over to the next generation and they in turn continue to champion its cause in the days ahead.
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