The State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT), presently engaged in revising school curriculum in the state, has forwarded to the government a proposal for implementing a uniform Malayalam script in school textbooks.
The proposal for a uniform script for Malayalam was mooted by noted litterateur and Curriculum Core Committee member George Onakkur at a recent meeting of the committee.
According to Onakkur, lack of uniformity in Malayalam script has resulted old and new scripts surfacing in the same textbook, creating confusion among students.
“It is ironical that even though Malayalam has been accorded classical language status, there is no uniformity in its script,’’ Onakkur told Express, adding that he had recommended to the SCERT to take necessary steps to implement a uniform script in textbooks by the next academic year.
The Kerala Government had revised the Malayalam script in the 1970s to make certain complicated
alphabets type writer-friendly.
However, old script is slowly gaining currency thanks to the advent of computers using Unicode fonts that allow use of a wide range of characters, letters, digits and symbols.
“It is a misconception that old script, with many joint letters, are confusing for students. In fact, the old script is more reader-friendly. The old script was revised for purely technical reasons which do not have any relevance in the present context. Let our children learn the language in its traditional form,’’ noted poet Sugathakumari said.
According to technical experts in the SCERT, reverting to the old script using Unicode font will save considerable print space.
“A 100-page book printed in the new script will need only 80 pages when printed in the old script,’’ said an SCERT official.
Besides, Unicode fonts, used widely by the State Government in its websites and the IT@School project, can easily be converted into Braille script.
Besides making textbooks visually impaired-friendly, academic resources can also be shared easily over the internet, the official said.
However, SCERT Director K A Hashim was guarded in his response when asked about moves to revert to the old script.
“These are just proposals from some members of the Core Committee. We have forwarded the proposals to the government,’’ he said.
Left-affiliated teachers’ organisation, Kerala School Teachers’ Association (KSTA), has warned that any attempt to revise the script should be made only after a thorough discussion with all stakeholders.
“A panel of eminent linguistic experts should be constituted to study various aspects of script revision. Care should be taken that it does not hamper the smooth learning process of schoolchildren,’’ KSTA State general secretary M Shajahan said.