THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Language courses launched by the state literacy mission have evoked a rousing reception from across the state. Over 2,000 people have already enrolled for the four-month certificate courses in Hindi, English and Malayalam.
While ‘Achchi Hindi’ aims at equipping learners to become fluent in the national language, ‘Good English’ and ‘Pachcha Malayalam’ help learners improve their English and Malayalam skills respectively. While ‘Achchi Hindi’ has seen 334 enrollments, the number of learners enrolled for the English and Malayalam programmes are 996 and 688 respectively.
Thiruvananthapuram district, with 110 enrollments, tops the number of learners for the ‘Pachcha Malayalam’ course. The district also has 50 enrollments in the ‘Achchi Hindi’ course which is the highest in the state. As many as 400 people have registered for the Good English course in Kozhikode district alone which is the highest in the state.
Excited for Malayalam
‘Pachcha Malayalam’ has seen a rise in enrollments after the government made Malayalam the administrative language. People from linguistic minorities and government officers who are not proficient in the language have found the course very useful.
The ‘Pachcha Malayalam’ course also aims at popularising Malayalam computing and encourages use of the language in modern gadgets. Any person above 17 can enroll for the course. Each study centre should have a minimum of 30 enrollments. Retired teachers and qualified youth proficient in Hindi, Malayalam and English function as faculty members of the course.
A prescribed fee will be charged from the students.
“The courses were introduced as part of the general education protection campaign. Even though Malayalam has been made compulsory from Class I onwards, there exists a generation who have completed higher education without obtaining proficiency in their mother tongue. The courses are tailor-made for such groups of people,” said P S Sreekala, director, Literacy Mission.
Students in CBSE schools and other English medium schools where Malayalam is not compulsory can make the best out of the course, Sreekala added.
New Initiatives
Currently, the literacy mission is offering certificate course of four month duration. For those interested in learning language and literature, one year diploma courses will be launched. Separate syllabus will be prepared for students from Class V to Class VII and from Class VIII to Higher Secondary. Special classes will also be launched in schools.
For those jobs where knowledge of Malayalam is compulsory, the diploma course will come in handy. The objective of launching courses in English and Hindi was in tune with the tri-language scheme followed in schools.