Losing our language

This has reference to the headline "Schools to chop off mother-tongue” that appeared in the Mid-Day of February 16, 2004.

This article states, "The last 10th standard (Secondary School Board) exams in these languages will be held in March 2005. While Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Kannada, Ardhmagadhi and Avesta cannot be studied as optional languages, they can, however, be taught in schools where the medium of instruction is the language itself.”

The new rules, laid down in a recent circular issued to the Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, states that seven Indian languages will no longer be offered as optional languages in schools in Maharashtra because there are not enough takers.

A member of the Board who did not want to be named said, "If the number of students in a subject is less than 20, it is not possible to offer the subject... When there are few or no takers for the languages, it is expensive to maintain subject committees and other paraphernalia for the subject.”

There were only three out of the 3,00,000 students appearing for SSC exams who opted for Avesta, the language of Zoroastrian scriptures. For each subject, the board maintains a seven-member subject committee that decides its syllabus and employs textbook and test paper writers. "The board spends a few lakhs on each subject and if there are no takers, it’s wasteful,” said a Board member. Should the leaders of our community not petition the government/or the concerned Board that has laid down this rule to continue with the Avesta language as an optional language? The surest way for a civilization to fade into oblivion is to first do away with its language.

Since expense is the reason cited for doing away with the teaching of the Avesta language, I believe that there are enough philanthropic institutions within our community that could contribute towards the cost of keeping alive the Avesta language as part of the syllabus.

We must not allow our precious legacy, i.e. the Avesta language to be knocked off the syllabus. So what if only three students out of 3,00,000 opted for it. We must realize that when our numbers are dwindling this is bound to happen. But instead of knocking off the language from the syllabus, should we not make efforts to see that at least 30 students opt for that subject so as to make it viable for the Board to maintain the infrastructure to offer the Avesta language as part of the syllabus?

Subsequently in the Mid-Day of February 25, the education minister, Government of Maharashtra, Amrish Patel has been quoted as saying, "The implementation of the circular stopping the exams (for language-subjects like Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Sindhi, Ardhamagadhi and Avesta) after March 2005 has been stayed. The Board will continue to hold exams in the languages in future.”

KAYOMARZ PATEL