Youngsters urged to promote mother tongue

(Left) Advisor, School Education, KT Sukhalu (Right) Commissioner & Secretary, Y Kikheto Sema, IAS exhorting the students at Yehemi village on January 23.

Morung Express News
Dimapur | January 23

Advisor for School Education, KT Sukhalu has laid strong emphasis for the youngsters to remain connected to their roots and promote their own mother tongue, preserve their culture and tradition.

Speaking during the 49th General Conference of the Sumi Kiphimi Kuqhakulu (SKK) at Yehemi village on January 23, Sukhalu recalled his own experience of realizing the importance of mother tongue when he was asked by former CM, late Vizol to translate his speech in Sumi language during one of the SKK Conference. Sukahlu was the SKK President during that time. 

The former student leader recalled that he managed to translate the speech but was not confident enough since he lacked fluency with the language as he had spent most time of his student years outside the state.

“That is when I realized how important our mother tongue is and without which there is no identity,” he added.

The former bureaucrat also recalled how communitisation of education was started during the time of former Chief Secretary, RS Pandey. He said the objective behind communitisation was to involve the public in running educational institutions for betterment. However, he rue that the public instead of controlling the teachers, started coming to sorts of understanding and also shared salary of the teachers. Sukahlu said that the Education Department is seriously looking into such practises.

Speaking on behalf of Sumi Officers’ Union Nagaland, Y Kikheto Sema, IAS Commissioner & Secretary urged the student community to remain active and maintain positive outlook in life. “As a student you must work hard but if you remain lazy how are you going to reap any harvest?” he queried.

He said not every student can become officers, politicians, engineers etc but encouraged them to be sincere in whatever chosen field and then contribute back to the society.

Kikheto said it was not necessary that they study outside the state just because their friends are doing so but encouraged them to work hard and have strong determination to achieve their goals.

Talking about electoral practices in the state, Kikheto called for a united effort to make clean election a reality. He referred to how money and muscle power plays a huge role during electioneering process in the state and cited example of the part that Sumis play in elections. Pointing out that during the 2018 state elections, 35 Sumis contested in 11 Assembly constituencies, Kikheto said even if one has to take an average of Rs 10 crore as being spent by each candidate, the total amount would come to Rs 350 crore being spent by Sumi candidates. He referred to this average figures and added that election was very expensive among the Sumis and appealed the community to change their mindset on this.