[lg policy] Sri Lanka: Official Language Policy implementation at snail's pace

[Harold Schiffman]

Official Language Policy implementation at snail's pace

   -  By  Sandun Jayawardana
   - Sunday, 23 February 2014 02:12

(0 votes)

  The pace of implementing the Government's Official Language Policy has
been far from satisfactory, Minister of National Languages and Social
Integration Vasudewa Nanayakkara told The Nation. Minister Nanayakkara
admitted the Government had not gone speedily enough when it came to
ensuring language equality in the country.

He also acknowledged that not a single prosecution had so far been
conducted with regard to language violations. "This is a matter for the
Attorney-General's Department and they have to advise us. However, nothing
has been done for the last two years," he further stressed.

The Nation pointed out that the legal requirement of giving due prominence
to Sinhala and Tamil, the two official languages, and English which is the
link language, was still being ignored in many places, to which he agreed.
"If you look at Vavuniya, you have notices in all three languages. However,
as you come further down to somewhere like Anuradhapura, the notices only
appear in Sinhala. This is true, but the task we have is also enormous and
we have been trying very hard".

He added restructuring the Official Languages Commission was being given
priority in implementing that language policy. "The commission is currently
housed in two or three cubicles. They just don't have the space to
accommodate new staff. I have told them for over a year now to look for
premises that can accommodate them better, but this has still not been
done," the minister revealed.  The commission currently lacks a full-time
chairperson, while the post of director-general remains vacant. Meanwhile,
the Commissioner of Official Languages has been undertaking secretarial
duties of the commission, which is not proper given his position, according
to the minister. Such shortcomings have made speedy implementation of the
language policy difficult and Nanayakkara acknowledged he was disappointed
at the pace of progress.

"However, we have a research officer currently looking into the
restructuring of the commission and we also hope to introduce amendments to
the Official Languages Commission Act so that the process can go forward at
a faster rate," the minister said.
- See more at:
http://www.nation.lk/edition/news-online/item/26244-official-language-policy-implementation-at-snail%E2%80%99s-pace.html#sthash.DBFJaHks.dpuf


-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its
members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or
sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who
disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write
directly to the original sender of any offensive message.  A copy of this
may be forwarded to this list as well.  (H. Schiffman, Moderator)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20140223/9f70dbcc/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list