- S Kamat
Where else but in Goa will you get a Govt. constituted committee to go into the reasons for closure of Marathi medium schools. Where the Official Language is Konkani no one is interested in knowing the reasons why Konkani medium schools are loosing enrolment or involved in promoting the lot of these schools. But then for us Marathi medium schools are more important! The same importance for Marathi is not even given to the language in its home State of Maharasthra where the focus is to teach English from the preparatory school stage. Thus it is not understood why we hold Marathi on our head and dance with it.
To develop the independent spirit of Goans and to be less considered as the country cousins or bumpkins of the Maharasthrians we have to develop our own language which is the first barometer of any culture. It is not that we should set aside our knowledge of Marathi and its contribution in our lives in Goa but then give a higher priority to Konkani and adapt more and more of our customs and practices in our mother tongue.
This will give us the pride in our language and in turn for Goa. The same goes for the Konkani medium of instruction schools which use the Devanagari script for teaching. The same script is used up to the post-graduate levels at the university. This should continue as it has in the past since the fact of the matter is that in Goan families the elders know Marathi or Roman Konkani script but the younger generation is well versed with the Devanagari script.
This is the way to go to bring the glory of Konkani back in her original script and that is with Devanagari.
Where else but in Goa will you get a Govt. constituted committee to go into the reasons for closure of Marathi medium schools. Where the Official Language is Konkani no one is interested in knowing the reasons why Konkani medium schools are loosing enrolment or involved in promoting the lot of these schools. But then for us Marathi medium schools are more important! The same importance for Marathi is not even given to the language in its home State of Maharasthra where the focus is to teach English from the preparatory school stage. Thus it is not understood why we hold Marathi on our head and dance with it.
To develop the independent spirit of Goans and to be less considered as the country cousins or bumpkins of the Maharasthrians we have to develop our own language which is the first barometer of any culture. It is not that we should set aside our knowledge of Marathi and its contribution in our lives in Goa but then give a higher priority to Konkani and adapt more and more of our customs and practices in our mother tongue.
This will give us the pride in our language and in turn for Goa. The same goes for the Konkani medium of instruction schools which use the Devanagari script for teaching. The same script is used up to the post-graduate levels at the university. This should continue as it has in the past since the fact of the matter is that in Goan families the elders know Marathi or Roman Konkani script but the younger generation is well versed with the Devanagari script.
This is the way to go to bring the glory of Konkani back in her original script and that is with Devanagari.
1 comment:
Interesting website with a lot of resources and detailed explanations.
»
Post a Comment