<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" bgcolor="#ffffff"><h1 class="headline style167 style168">English for official purposes recommended in 2010 report</h1></td>
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<td class="style167" valign="top" bgcolor="#ffffff">Expediting implementation of Language policy</td>
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<td class="style167" valign="top" bgcolor="#ffffff">By Chandani Kirinde<br><br></td>
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The Official Languages Commission (OLC) has
recommended several constitutional amendments be made to eliminate
apparent contradictions and ambiguities contained in Chapter IV of the
Constitution headed as Language.</p>
<p> The Commission has
recommended that Clause (18) of this Chapter should be amended to read
as “Sinhala and Tamil, the national languages should be the official
languages of Sri Lanka” and “that English may be used for official
purposes.”</p>
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<p>At present Clause 18 (1) reads that the
official language of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Clause 18 (2) that
Tamil shall also be an official language and Clause 18 (3) that English
shall be the link language.</p>
<p> The aforesaid and other
amendments to the Constitution as well as the progress that has been
made with regard to the implementation of the Official Languages Policy
(OLP) of the country are contained in the 2010 report of the OLC
complied under the auspices of its former Chairman Raja Collure and
which was presented to President Mahinda Rajapaksa.</p>
<p> The difficulty of
corresponding with Government institutions in the language of their
choice has been expressed as a major grievance particularly by the Tamil
speaking people in the North and East as well as in the estate sector
due to the lack of officials proficient in that language.</p>
<p> With the setting up of
the Ministry of National Languages and Social Integration in April this
year, the OLC which functions under its purview has adopted a five-fold
policy to expedite the implementation of the language policy.</p>
<p> N.Selvakkumaran, the
new Chairman of the Commission said that the focus would be on advising
the Government on the language policy, creating awareness, facilitating
Government institutions to advance a tri-language policy, review
implementation and enforce the legal requirements on language. “Steps
must be taken to put place national education and recruitment policies
in line with the declared national language policy of the country,” he
said.</p>
<p> The Government has
already gazetted the names of those in State institutions who would be
the Chief Official Languages Implementation Officer and these include
Secretaries to Ministries, Heads of Departments, Chief Secretaries of
Provincial Councils and Municipal Commissioners and Secretaries in local
government institutions.</p>
<p> The Chief
Implementation Officers are required to have a sound knowledge of the
laws on the OLP and evolve a framework for the implementation and
supervision within their institution.
The others amendments recommended are to provide
for the right to education in any of the three languages as well as
have the right to be instructed in any courses for students in higher
education institutions in either of the languages.</p>
<p> It is also recommended
that members of elected bodies including Parliament and Provincial
Councils should be enabled to use English in their deliberations while
those who join the public service be required to attain the required
levels of proficiency in English within a reasonable period of time to
enhance the quality of their service.</p>
<p> The conversion of the
OLC into an independent institution with braches in the periphery too
has been recommended while finances for the implementation of the OLP
are made available to the Commission. </p>
<p> The OLC has taken
several steps in the past few years to implement the policy including
action to compel that street sign boards and place names be displayed in
all three languages along with destination boards on buses while
monitoring to ensure that public sector notices and advertisements are
made in all languages.</p>
<p> The OLC is also
encouraging private sector institutions to take measures to train their
personnel in the use of both national languages. “There are several
private sector banks that have started their own programs in language
training. It is a very encouraging fact,” OLC Chairman Selvakkumaran
said.</p></td></tr></tbody></table><br><a href="http://www.sundaytimes.lk/101031/News/nws_56.html">http://www.sundaytimes.lk/101031/News/nws_56.html</a><br>-- <br>**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>
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