Kohima, March 29 (MExN): Governor of Nagaland, PB Acharya has written to the Union Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD) Prakash Javadekar requesting him to consider continuing till December 20, 2017 the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Financial Assistance for Appointment of Language Teachers, under which 1379 Hindi Teachers have been appointed in Nagaland.
Expressing concern that the Central Government in a letter has already mentioned that the Scheme will be discontinued upon completion of the terminal year of the 12th Five Year Plan period 2012-2017, he appealed to the Minister to “continue the said Scheme for Non-Hindi States like strategic border area State of Nagaland where Hindi speaking people are a positive agent to strengthen National integration,” stated a press statement from PRO, Raj Bhavan.
Lauds bill for compulsory teaching of NE culture
Acharya, who is also in-charge of Arunachal Pradesh, has lauded MP (Lok Sabha) from Arunachal Pradesh, Ninong Ering for introducing a Bill in Parliament for compulsory teaching of North East culture in educational institutions, a separate press release from PRO, Raj Bhavan said.
The Governor observed that most universities in the country have department for foreign languages, but none for tribal dialects. He stated that if one has to respect a person, one has to respect them in toto, their dress, language – dialect, food habits, physical features, etc. “Universities have to open up their mind towards tribals in general and the people of North East in particular,” he added.
As a first step, Acharya suggested, the universities can open a Department/Chair to learn, speak and read the tribal dialects of the eight North East states and call it NAMASTE – NE Department.
The Governor mentioned that under his initiative, NITTE Health & Science University of Mangaluru has already opened a Chair in the name of Rani Ma Gaidinliu for teaching tribal dialects under NAMASTE – NE Department and has completed two batches of four tribal dialects in Manipuri, Assamese, Mao and Khasi as six months certificate course.
He also added that Alva’s Education Foundation, Moodabidri and Manipal University in Mangaluru will be opening Chair/Department for North East tribal dialects shortly while Mumbai University and SNDT Women University (Mumbai), Symbiosis and KARVE University from Pune have also responded positively to open a Chair/Department for tribal dialects.
The Governor was positive that the move will bring awareness about the culture and history of North East in the schools and colleges in other States of the country.
