[lg policy] Sri Lanka: National Language Policy speechless without translators

[Harold Schiffman]

National Language Policy speechless without translators

By Chandani Kirinde

A dearth of qualified translators and interpreters is a major hurdle
to the implementation of the National Language Policy with a pressing
need for them in courts, provincial councils and local authorities.
This was revealed at a workshop held on the “Crisis in translation in
the public administration” last week.


Prof. S. Thillainathan

The cadre strength of the Translators Service was around 600 but there
were only 131 in the service at present, Official Languages Commission
(OLC) Chairman Raja Collure said. However, the actual requirement of
translators runs into several thousands with the administration of
justices sector alone needing a minimum of 500 translators and 500
interpreters. According to Prof. S. Thillainathan, a member of the
OLC, many government departments and institutions do not have the
facilities to either reply to letters received in the second official
language (Tamil) or to provide a translation.

“In several sectors, translation is a serious problem for the public.
In courts, certificates of birth, marriage, death, etc. in Tamil are
not accepted and certified copies of Sinhala or English translations
have to be submitted at the expense of the clients,” he said. Mr.
Collure said the non-availability of qualified translators should be
addressed at school level with the education system being geared to
produce persons who were bilingual or trilingual (Sinhala, Tamil and
English) while the universities should also organise their language
departments to put out graduates who were competent in at least two
languages.

The workshop concluded that general education should include training
in the second national language -- the national language which is not
the mother tongue, meaning either Sinhala or Tamil -- and that the
second language be made a compulsory subject in school. It was also
recommended that facilities be provided to students who wished to
offer the second national language as a subject at the GCE Ordinary
and Advanced level examinations. In the university system, it was
suggested that language courses should be designed to combine both
national languages.

The OLC also recommended that a translation centre be set up, modelled
on the Translation Bureau of Canada to provide the service of
translations of documents and of interpretation and connected matters.

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/090802/News/news_10.html
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