UGC's Year-long plan to celebrate mother language day

AURANGABAD: Institutes of higher learning have been asked to undertake year-long activities in keeping with the spirit of International Mother Language Day, commemorated by the UNESCO on February 21 every year.The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked public universities and affiliated colleges to organise activities like song recitation competitions, elocution competition, essay writing and general knowledge quiz to mark the occasion. The institutes of higher learning have been also asked to arrange poster exhibition, display charts informing language diversity of India and its rich heritage in Mother Tongues to promote the respective regional languages.University Grants Commission (UGC) secretary Jaspal Sandhu, in his letter to universities, has appealed to universities and colleges to use the occasion of Mother Language Day to highlight importance of regional languages in the country.The need to acquire all four skills of language - listening, speaking, reading and writing, and preservation and promotion of all different Mother Tongues are some of the objectives UGC has mentioned behind observing the UNESCO initiative. The year-long activities are expected to imbibe on the minds of students advantages of learning multiple languages and developing an attitude of appreciating and learning other languages.The universities and colleges have been asked to submit action-taken report in compliance with the Mother Language Day initiative. Speaking with ToI on Sunday, Sadashiv Sarkate, head of board of studies for Marathi at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, said UGC initiative to expand International Mother Language Day over a period of year would benefit the language."Though Marathi language has a very old tradition, the language is struggling for existence in academic terrain these days. The UGC initiative would have major impact on revival of the language," he said. Sarkate said colleges affiliated to BAMU would be asked to observe International Mother Language Day in letter and spirit.According to UNESCO, International Mother Language Day has been observed every year since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. The date represents the day in 1952 when students demonstrating for recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the two national languages of the then Pakistan, were shot and killed by police in Dhaka, the capital of what is now Bangladesh."Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. All moves to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue," UNESCO said.

കടപ്പാട്: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/aurangabad/Year-long-plan-to-celebrate-mother-language-day/articleshow/46257192.cms