[lg policy] India: Writer calls for a national language policy

[Harold Schiffman]

Writer calls for a national language policy
Mangaluru, April 09 ,2015, DHNS

English should be made compulsory, says Prof Javare Gowda
 *Senior scholar and former VC of Mysore University Prof De Javare Gowda
and well-known poet Prof K S Nisar Ahmed stressed on the need for
formulating a national language policy to find a solution to the problem of
medium of instruction and related issues. *

Speaking on the sidelines of silver jubilee celebrations of Prasaranga of
Mangalore University here on Wednesday, Prof De Javare Gowda said Kannada
should be medium of instruction from first to tenth standard. However,
English should be made a compulsory language to study.

“English is a world language. We need to make use of it. The language
policy should be passed in the Parliament. Initially, education was a state
subject. It was later, Indira Gandhi included it in the concurrent list.
The State government passing  Kannada Language Learning Bill, 2015 , which
seeks to provide primary education (standard I to V) in the child’s mother
tongue or in Kannada, may not get constitutional validity.”

Lauding Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education Kimmane
Ratnakar, Prof K S Nisar Ahmed said “Kannada should be medium of
instruction from first to fifth standard. There was also a need to create a
Kannada ambience and ensure that Kannada was taught in schools. At the same
time, English should not be neglected, because it is a globally accepted
language and helps an individual to gain employment.”

“Prominence should be given to Kannada at the school level, because one can
not go and learn Kannada in England. All the states should pass a language
policy bill to make state language as a medium of instruction and then get
approval from the Centre,” he said.

The writer advised the IT and BT companies to give preference to those
students who have studied in Kannada medium while selecting for employment.

Earlier, Prof De Javare Gowda said that teaching, research and publications
are part of an university activities. Teachers should disseminate
knowledge.

Prof Gowda said that knowledge is power. It was only through knowledge that
a country can progress. Calling upon the people to cultivate the habit of
reading, the litterateur said that reading habits help in gaining
knowledge. The reading habit also help in developing writing skills.

The activities of Prasaranga should be strengthened in the university. The
medical universities which do not have a separate publication wings are
equal to lazy people.
“In 1934, during a convention at Oxford University, Prasaranga of Mysore
University was referred as a Mysore University model.”

Prof Nisar Ahmed said that it was Kuvempu who gave a new lease of life to
Prasaranga of Mysore University.

Mangalore University Vice Chancellor Prof K Byrappa said that as a part of
the silver jubilee celebrations, it has been decided to publish at least 25
books. In the first phase, six books were released on the occasion. They
are “Yakshagana sthithigathi” by Dr M Prabhakar Joshi, “Balipa gana yana”
by Dr Nagaveni Manchi, “Yakshagana Prasanga Samputa” by Dr Padekallu Vishnu
Bhat, “Adbhutha America” by Dr H M Nagaraju, “Shabda seemeya aache” by
Poornima Suresh and “Karavali Mahaneeyara baduku—saadhane.” The Prasaranga
has already published 121 publications including three research series
publication and 62 textbook series publications in Kannada and five in
Sanskrit, so far.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/470558/writer-calls-national-language-policy.html

-- 
**************************************
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/20150409/b47789dd/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