Meetei Mayek text books for Class XI to be introduced
Source: The Sangai Express / DIPR

Imphal, July 27 2016: From the next academic session textbooks in twenty subjects in Meetei Mayek will be introduced in the schools of the State, said Kh Raghumani, Director Language Planning and Implementation during a press conference held here today at DIPR organized by DIPR.

Subsequently in the next year the textbooks for Class XII will also be introduced.

The Directorate after its formation on September 4, 2013 is responsible for resolving all the language issues in the State.

The Department is also entrusted to implement all the National and State Language Acts, rules, and policies.

Apart from these, the Department has been acting as a State Nodal Language Department.

At present, evolution of terminology building has been completed for Manipuri language for 15 subjects viz, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, Anthropology, Geology, Geography, Home Science, Economics, History, Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology, Accountancy and Business studies.

Terminology building for 10 subjects viz, Education, Psychology, Statistics, Computer Science, Biotechnology, Fine Arts, Manipuri Dance, Engineering Drawing, Physical Education and Music) are in process.

To encourage writers the directorate confers "Manipur State Award for Literature" every year with a cash award of Rs 3 lakh.

The department is planning to open " Life time achievement award" with a cash award of Rs 5 lakh.

There are 13 recognised tribal languages which are taught upto XII standard.

The Directorate has prepared Grammars for the 13 major tribal languages.

For the minor dialects spoken by less than 10,000 people preservation and documentation work for endangered minority tribal are also taken up.

According to L Mahabir, Jt Director, some dialects like Purum, Tarao are on the brink of extinction as less than 1000 people are speaking the dialects.

Meetei Mayek has been adopted as the only script for Manipuri language in place of Bengali script and introduced in all the schools of the State from Classes I and II from the academic year 2006.This system upgrades on yearly basis upto Class XI from the academic session, 2017-18.However, mere transliteration of Manipuri textbooks from Bengali script into Meetei Mayek is not enough for the entire growing students of the State.

They require all Manipuri reference books etc in Meetei Mayek.

Therefore, systematic and large scale transliteration work for all available Manipuri books, records, periodicals, papers etc into Meetei Mayek is in the pipeline.

The Directorate also is working to evolve technical terms in different branches of knowledge and propagation of the work done in this field, and imparting training of technical terminology.

Translation for Government notifications published in Manipur Government gazettes, circulations, policy notes of various Departments, reports of public undertaking and Public Accounts Committees, annual report of commissions, Governor's address, notes for Cabinet, speeches of Ministers and Press Releases etc are also taken up.

Pursuant to the demand of Manipuri as Classical language, old Manipuri books/literatures (written in the form of Puyas) shall be translated in English and Hindi.

It is important that the literary works of Manipuri scholars should be made available to all.

Hence the writings of the best Manipuri scholars are to be Nationalized.

Classic/prize winner Manipuri works may be translated into English, Hindi and other Modern Indian Languages.

The directorate is also planning works related to preparation of standard grammars, production of Manipuri language teaching materials, encyclopaedia on Manipuri literature, grammar etc.

It is also planning to compile Manipuri dictionaries viz, learners, etymological and multilingual, publication of history of Manipuri language, encyclopaedia of technical terms, verbose on Manipuri literature.

The Directorate further plans to prepare Manipuri software which would be useful for the official language implementation and Manipuri development, e-dictionary so as to use Manipuri in administration, spell checker to screen the notes and drafts and grammar checker to correct syntax.

Translation and publication of important rules, regulations, notices etc into all major tribal languages whose population constitute 15% or more at district or sub-division level is also underway besides preparation and production of comprehensive grammars, teaching and learning materials for various purposes, compilation of monolingual, bilingual and multilingual dictiona-ries, terminology and glossary building, translation of tribal dialect books into Manipuri and vice versa, preparation of comparative vocabularies/lexicon of all major tribal languages along Manipuri, Hindi and English.

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