Thannganing Hungyo
New Delhi
Nagaland has lots of catching up to do if students in the state wish to be fluent in Hindi. Mizoram, on the other hand, has surged ahead by setting up a college to train Hindi teachers. An adequate number of teachers has been appointed in Mizoram for this purpose, says a bureaucrat in the ministry of human resource development.
The HRD ministry recommends that Nagaland should walk in Mizoram’s footsteps, if the state wishes to be on a par with the former as far as the quality of Hindi teaching in schools is concerned. Nagaland may have inefficiently utilised the scheme for appointment of teachers, added the official, speaking of reasons behind the lag.
Another reason he cited was the unwillingness of teachers from the Hindi-speaking belt to work in the Northeast. As a second language, Hindi is preferable compared to Urdu and other modern Indian languages, he added.
The Planning Commission had earlier decided to transfer the administration of the scheme for appointment of Hindi teachers — on technical grounds — from the languages section of the HRD to the Kendriya Hindi Sangathan located at Agra. However, the HRD ministry is asking that the scheme be transferred back to the ministry, as “it has not worked.”
However, the Planning Commission is yet to give its response. The Nagaland school education minister, Imkong L. Imchen, has an altogether different story to tell. Squarely blaming the Centre for not sanctioning enough funds for the growth of the subject, he said the bureaucracy in Delhi was hampering the progress of the scheme.
“Hindi is important for fostering national integration,” the minister said. He also stressed the importance of garnering more funds to facilitate Hindi teaching. In Nagaland, Hindi is compulsory up to Class VIII, after which it becomes an optional subject.
According to the All Nagaland Hindi Teachers’ Association, several students of the state are trying to acquire fluency in the language, as it helps them when they enroll in educational institutes outside the region. English is the official language of the state but the common tongue is Nagamese, a combination of Assamese with a sprinkling of Bengali and Hindi.
(Courtesy The Telegraph)
.jpg)
