National language policy:

President wants total implementation

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

Language policymakers and institutional leaders at state level are rapidly taking measures to elevate the status of bilingualism at public institutions, sequel to a call by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to ensure 100 percent implementation of the country’s national language policy.

President Rajapaksa had reportedly told officials involved in the implementation of the national language policy, that all Sri Lankans should be able to receive services from government departments and institutions in the official language of their choice.

The President emphasized that both Tamil and Sinhala speaking public should have equal status of language of work and respect within the public service,and steps must be taken to position services in both official languages, sources at National Language and Social Integration Ministry told the Daily News yesterday.

President Rajapaksa said that neither Tamil-speaking Sri Lankans nor Sinhala-speaking Tamils are to be discriminated against on language grounds within the public service.

Sources said, they have expanded their language training programmes throughout the island to train public servants in bilingualism.

“Our aim is to get at least one qualified person who can speak in Tamil in every hospital, government department, agrarian centre, pradeshiya sabha, divisional secretariat and fisheries department throughout the island,” a ministry official said.

President Rajapaksa had said that bilingual facilities should not be restricted to Northern and Eastern Provinces and the services should be available throughout the country, he said.

Meanwhile, the ministry recently started a dialogue with the Education ministry to increase the number of periods they teach Tamil language in schools.

“We have also requested the Inspector General of Police, to get police officers who can speak Tamil, to be deployed in areas where Tamil speaking public are found in large numbers,” the official said.

Inspector General of Police K P M Illangakoon had responded positively, he said.

”We have started forming language associations at village levels. The ministry will send personnel to teach English or Tamil languages to these associations at their request. For this they must register with the ministry first,” he said.

”The ministry has about 750 teachers, of them 600 are Sinhalese who can teach Tamil and 150 are Tamil teachers who can teach Sinhala. Moves are under way to train more language teachers to promote bilingual education,” he added.