Once again on trilingualism

President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing the Diamond Jubilee event of Joseph Vaz College Wennappuwa once again stressed on the importance of acquiring English language skills while at the same time being firmly moored to one's own culture and mother tongue. "When we learn another language we cannot forget our mother tongue though it would be an advantage to learn English or another foreign language", he told the students.

True, the importance of English cannot be overstressed in today's context with the unlimited avenues opened for those skilled in English and IT. A special English language training program has already been launched on the initiative of the President himself to take English and IT to the far corners of the country.

But like the President noted, this should not necessarily mean we should abandon our mother tongue. Today many tend to forget even their native origins and even assume airs of superiority due to their command of the English language. Worse, some even cultivate alien accents and flaunt their Anglicized bearing and mannerisms treating those of native upbringing with scorn.

What the President meant was that English language skills should be used as a tool and not an ornament to be displayed and disported. Ideally English knowledge should be acquired for its utility value and not brandished as a status symbol. It is this attitude of the past that caused divisions in society and subsequent upheaval. The swabasha types were not permitted into the charmed circles of the elite even in areas such as sports. Thankfully the native boys from the backwoods such as the Jayasuriyas and Vidanages had breached this elite bastions of the English speaking paving the way for upward mobility of the lesser lights.

We say this because time was when English was the preserve of a privileged few and used as a bludgeon to block the underclass from advancement. But today these barriers are no more allowing any person to acquire a knowledge in English. The problem though lay in proficiency. There is a huge dearth of competent teachers who can impart English knowledge with tact. This is because there are many who are still intimidated by English and have developed a complex with regard to it. The kaduwa syndrome is not yet entirely banished. The poor results at the GCE English is also a pointer that children in the rural areas still do not consider the subject as important. This could be a setback to the efforts to impart an English knowledge to a wider segment. Steps therefore should be taken to make English language learning more pleasant and stimulating to the young. The subject should be taught in a simplified form without overemphasis on syntax and grammar that would confuse the beginner. There should be a complete overhaul in the teaching methods and students instilled with confidence to pursue the subject without fear or intimidation.

The President also wants schoolchildren to learn both Sinhala and Tamil given today's context. This should be started from the formative years so that children would not feel the difference of ethnicity and race in their interaction. In the past although there were classes in the Sinhala and Tamil streams, many Tamil students opted to study in the Sinhala medium and even surpassed their Sinhala colleagues in performance. This, while helping foster ethnic harmony went a long way in building good rapport and fellowship between the two groups. We should try to promote such concepts as much as possible in the present times. That would help create a society free of racial and ethnic prejudice as envisaged by the President.

Traitorous conduct

According to our front page report yesterday four Nephrologists who underwent a six-year training abroad have not returned to the country. They owe their training to the Post Graduate Institute of Medicine. According to Professor Rizvi Sheriff who made the revelation at a function in Colombo, there are no trained Nephrologists to operate the HD machines in Anuradhapura Hospital and at small dialysis centres at several teaching hospitals.

This amounts to a traitorous act on the part of these professionals who are no less disgraceful than those sportsmen and athletes who decamp while going to represent the country overseas. It is doubly unfortunate at a time when the Head of State has made a clarion call to all Lankan professionals abroad to return to their native land to assist in the post war rebuilding.

This is not the first time that medical and other personnel sent on training abroad at State expense have done the vanishing trick. Therefore the authorities should implement some stern measures against those ungrateful turning their back on the country after benefiting to the hilt from its munificence. At least that much is owned to the tax payer who had funded the free education of these shameless elements.