Education Minister's statement on introduction of Sanskrit in select schools, colleges draws flak
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 21 2020: The Education Minister's statement about introducing Sanskrit as a subject in select schools and colleges has drawn flak from various organisations.

Speaking to media persons at its office today, MEELAL (Meetei Erol Eyek Loinasillol Apunba Lup) secretary general Huirem Loikhomba Meetei said the Education Minister should first work on to develop and promote the indigenous languages and Meetei Mayek script before promoting other languages.

On the need for promoting Meetei Mayek, he said MEELAL has been demanding the Government to change the "Manipuri written in Benglai script" written in the Manipur Official Language Act 1979 to "Manipuri written in Meetei Mayek" since the last 14/15 years.

So far there is no step taken towards realising this demand by the Government.

Instead of introducing Sanskrit as a subject, the Education Department should promote Meetei Mayek.

Repository Departments may be opened and offer 6 months certificate or one year diploma courses in Manipuri Puya.

The Education Department and the Government should not wait for public outrage to act and address the plight of the people, he said.

Even though the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 promises to teach or engage students upto Class VIII in local languages, there has been no visible work till now to translate the text books of the students into Manipuri/Meetei Mayek.

Instead of visiting schools and colleges, the Education Minister should enquire the Directors of the Departments concerned and ensure there is enough textbooks for students at book stores, he said.

He also appealed the Education Minister to "save the more than 40 languages spoken in the State and include them in the multi-ethno-encyclopaedia to bring about ethnic harmony" .

The authorities concerned should also take steps to identify Manipuri language as a classical language.

State language department other than DLPI (Directorate of Language Planning and Implementation) should be established form vocabulary and lexical committee to discard foreign words and formulate suitable lexicon, he added.

North-East Forum for International Solidarity (NEFIS) also criticised the announcement to introduce Sanskrit and alleged that the "singular prominence to promotion of Sanskrit is being done on the line of the new National Education Policy 2020" .

The NEP 2020 emphasises the study of Sanskrit at the cost of other Schedule 8 languages of India, it claimed.

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