Need 'pragmatic policy' to encourage mother tongue in schools:

VPAhmedabad, Oct 14 (PTI) Vice President Venkaiah Naidutoday called for a "pragmatic policy" to encourage the use ofmother tongue in schools, but ...
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VPAhmedabad, Oct 14 (PTI) Vice President Venkaiah Naidutoday called for a "pragmatic policy" to encourage the use ofmother tongue in schools, but rued that not "enough attention"was paid to ensure children learn at least one language duringtheir schooling.

Naidu was addressing the inaugural session of a two-dayinternational conference on 'The Journey of Indian Languages:Perspectives on Culture and Society', jointly organised by theDr B R Ambedkar Open University and the Indira Gandhi NationalOpen University.

"We must continuously strive to promote the use of alllanguages and encourage literary figures to produce new works.

However, the current scenario in the country is a littledisturbing.

"Not enough attention is being paid to ensure thatchildren master at least one language well during theirschooling stage," Naidu said.

He said surveys have found that children exhibit "poor,unsustainable literacy skills," and the situation has to beremedied.

"Many children are dropping out, especially in tribalareas, because they are taught in a different language fromwhat they speak at home. Language can be a barrier as well. Weshould have a pragmatic policy to encourage mother tongue atthe early stages of schooling and gradually move on to otherlanguages," he said.

"It will be much more challenging to build a knowledgebased economy with such poor foundational literacy skills," hesaid.

Naidu called languages "the reality of lives around us,the cultural context," and "the window to the collectiveconsciousness and culture of people". He also urged scholarsto explore linguistic research areas to understand "socialchallenges associated with language teaching and learning."He praised the journey behind the evolution of modernIndian languages. "I would like to say that modern Indianlanguages have had a rich journey starting primarily from itsroots in classical languages.

"According to one study, India, with 780 languages,has the world's second highest number of languages, afterPapua New Guinea where people use 839 languages," he furthersaid. PTI KA PD RMTABH.

This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.

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