{"id":90523,"date":"2019-06-18T17:05:25","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T00:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=90523"},"modified":"2019-06-18T17:05:25","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T00:05:25","slug":"the-tamil-language-in-sri-lanka-part-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/06\/18\/the-tamil-language-in-sri-lanka-part-14\/","title":{"rendered":"THE TAMIL LANGUAGE IN SRI LANKA Part 14"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS <\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

With the \u2018rise\u2019 of the Tamil language in Sri Lanka,  there was the desire to bring Tamil to the\nsame level as Sinhala. Sinhala ranks first in \nall trilingual lists including \nname boards on roads. A suggestion \nwas made that the languages should be vertically written, on name\nboards,  with Sinhala in the middle. ( Daily News 16.6.09 p 10) . This \nwould eliminate the visible rank order and remove the dominant position\nof Sinhala .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was also the desire to bring Tamil to\nthe same level as Sinhala  on the\ncultural plane. This was best done by gathering Sinhala and Tamil writing\ntogether and running them alongside. Sri Lankan Mosaic\u201d, (2002) published by\nThree Wheeler Press, funded by Michael Ondaatje, did just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It\npublished an equal number of Sinhala and Tamil short stories in English\ntranslation, implying that the overall output of writing was also equal.  However, the output is not equal.\nInternational Standard Book Number (ISBN) statistics showed that 6377  Sinhala and 677 Tamil books with ISBNs  were published in  2014. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Ondaatje also wanted one significant\nmodern novel in Sinhala and Tamil each translated into English and published by\nThree Wheeler Press, funded by Michael Ondaatje. Three Wheeler therefore\npublished \u2018Sangu\u2019 by S. Ponnuthurai and “Podu purushaya” by Sunethra\nRajakarunanayake. This is an unintentional lumping together of Sinhala and Tamil\nas vernaculars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sirisumana Godage was a prolific publisher of\nSinhala works. His name was associated exclusively with Sinhala\npublishing.   He was persuaded to publish\nTamil literature as well. Godage went further.  \nIn April 2014, Godage held a function to salute senior Sinhala and Tamil\nwriters at one ceremony. 15 writers in Sinhala and Tamil each were to be\nrecognized .The 30 names were given in their own languages. Invitation was in\nboth Sinhala and Tamil. Tamil literature, at least in appearance, had now come\nlevel with Sinhala literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Tamil lobby was not satisfied with\nwhat had been achieved. They complained that the official language policy with\nregard to Tamil was not satisfactory in 2017. Nirmala Chandrahasan said that\nthe government should ensure that the Official languages policy is implemented\nin full, and this includes the Central ministries, and that Tamil speaking\ncitizens (and Sinhala speaking citizens living in North and East) are able to\ncommunicate with and receive communications from the State in their language in\nany part of the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the Tamil language has been one of\nthe official languages of the Country from 1987, and this is set out in the\nConstitution, this provision is still to be implemented fully. This fact is\nmentioned in the LLRC Report as a grievance to be rectified, concluded\nChandrahasan. Article 24 of the\nconstitution which makes Tamil the language of administration in the North and East\nis being violated openly, complained D Hoole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jehan Perera focused on the media. We call on\nthe state television stations to carry the same discussion topics on their\nTamil channels as they do on their Sinhala channels instead of showing films,\nmusic and sports thereby undermining the desire of Tamil-speakers to be one\nwith the nation in its suffering. We request that such media programmes be translated\nfor all to understand,\u201d he said in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tamil lobby has no intention of letting go.  They were prepared to coerce if necessary. In August\n2018, the Official Language Commission advertised for a \u2018Language promotion and\nInvestigating officer\u2019.   The lobby would\nprefer, however, to persuade. The Official language Ministry has conducted\na large number of awareness programmes and workshops to educate the public on\nthe importance of the Official Language policy\u201d, said Ganesan.  Workshops<\/strong> were conducted for\ndistrict secretariats, police officers, health sector and various categories of\nstate officials. Prathiba Mahanama, former Commissioner of Human Rights also\ngives lectures on the importance of the National Language Policy, he\nadded.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tamil\nlobby wanted to see the Tamil language entrenched all over the\nisland. There are 332 Divisional Secretariats in this country of which 41\nare officially declared bilingual, as Tamil and Sinhala speaking people live in\nthese areas, said Minister  Mano Ganesan,\n for example Dehiwala, Kolonnawa, Wattala\nand Nuwara-Eliya. Officials in these secretariats at least, should be able to\ncommunicate in both languages, as a start, he said.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ganesan said that any Tamil, anywhere, should be able to communicate with\nand transact business with the state, the law courts and the police in Tamil.  This means a full parallel service structure\nof Tamil translators, interpreters, typists, stenographers and a separate set\nof Tamil publications at all levels.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, admitted Ganesan, there is a dearth of translators and\ninterpreters in the country. This was in 2016. I<\/strong> have\nsubmitted a cabinet paper requesting to employ a large number of translators\nand interpreters. As this is a professional job, my Ministry will train\ncivilians as translators and interpreters and appoint them especially to police\nStations and judiciary services as we need to have proper translators in these\ndepartments. Just because one speaks Sinhala and Tamil, they can\u2019t be proper\ntranslators and interpreters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minister\nGanesan admitted in 2017, that bilingual language proficiency within the State\nsector was nowhere near satisfactory. Learning the second language is\nconsidered an additional burden by employees although second language\nproficiency is tied to their promotions and incentives,\u201d he said .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tamil lobby\nhowever, is jolly well determined to see that all government servants speak and\nwork in Tamil. Since force feeding\u201d Tamil to state sector employees had failed,\nthey had to think up something else. They decided that employees must know Tamil\nBEFORE they took up government service. Minister Ganesan said in 2016, that he\nhad put forward a Cabinet paper asking Cabinet to declare that State employees\nshould be completely   bilingual before they were given state jobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that pupils needed to be taught Tamil thoroughly and\nproperly in secondary school. At the moment, even basic Tamil is not taught. In 2019 several schools in Agalawatte\ncomplained that no teachers had been appointed to teach Tamil. Parents\ncomplained that they have to send their children to private tuition classes to\nlearn Tamil. Ganesan\nadmitted that<\/strong> \u2018Right now there is a shortage of six thousand\nlanguage teachers – Sinhala, Tamil and English. So we are in the process of\ntraining teachers. Up to Grade 9 a second language is compulsory, but there\nalso the quality is not good,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It appears that the Tamils themselves are\nunable to study in Tamil.  Zahira\nCollege, Hambantota is\nthe only Tamil medium national school in the District to teach Advanced Level\nScience and Mathematics. “Two teachers had been appointed\nto this school for teaching those subjects but they did not remain in the\nschool for long. Now, in 2018, the Tamil medium students do not have an\nopportunity to study science or mathematics for the Advanced Level examination,\nsaid critics.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schools in\nthe Central, Uva and Sabaragamuwa Provinces do not teach Science and Moths in\nTamil, at Advanced Level in 2019 as they do not have Tamil teachers. This is\ndespite the Central and Uva Provinces having separate Provincial Education\nMinistries for Tamil schools. Maths and Science teachers from the Northern\nProvince were brought down to teach the subjects, in the past, but now it\nis not happening. The Provincial Education authorities do not show any\ninclination towards getting them down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In the Central Province, the Tamil Provincial\nEducation Ministry Secretary is also the Provincial Agricultural Minister. He\nhas no time to overlook the Education sector, said complainants. The few\nschools that have Tamil stream Science and Maths restrict admission. They\ninsist that students must have 9\u2018A\u2019s in the Ordinary Level examination, to gain\nentry into the Science and Maths streams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite these bilingual problems, Sri Lanka\nbecame a trilingual nation in\n1987.  Sinhala, Tamil and English became\nofficial languages carrying equal rank. The legal position of English, which\nwas supposed to be a \u2018link language\u2019 appears to be the same as Sinhala and\nTamil, observed K.M. de Silva. The trilingual\nsituation was accepted without protest by the public because they had\nabsolutely no intention of complying with it. They intended to work around it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Important areas of public life went trilingual\neffortlessly. The Constitution of the Republic of Sri Lanka and all Acts of\nParliament were in all three languages. \nThe Hansard reported in all three languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government forms, such as birth, death,\nmarriage, passport applications, which are now online, are trilingual. But\nInstead of separate forms for each language, the government sensibly arranged\nfor one form with instructions in all three languages. Thus avoiding the\ncreation of a \u2018permanent circus of three languages with three sets of\ntranslations, adding to the public sector costs\u2019 as one critic put it. There\nwas a rank order in which the three language were to be listed, Sinhala first, then Tamil followed by English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Road directions and street names   were\ngiven   trilingually. There was    a prescribed rank order and a prescribed\nsize for the three scripts. The rank order was Sinhala, Tamil, and English. Kandy Railway Station however, had Sinhala in\nlarge letters, above the main entrance, with Tamil and English in smaller\nletters on either side. In\nJaffna, the name boards of\nJaffna Railway station,    University of Jaffna and police stations\nwere trilingual, in\nthe prescribed rank order.   Notices\ninside Jaffna Railway station were also given in all three languages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commercial establishments, both government and\nprivate, also followed the trilingual policy. State banks and private banks,\nfor instance, gave directions in all three languages, in the official rank\norder. Cheque books, savings books, Fixed Deposit applications and Fixed\nDeposit certificates carried information in all three languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it appears that there is room for\nimprovement. In 2017, Yahapalana government repeated that steps will be taken\nto ensure all external and internal movable and immovable signboards are\ntrilingual.  All documents and forms for public use will be\navailable at State institutions in the three languages. Efforts will be made to\nensure citizens receive oral and written responses in the official language of\ntheir choice or the link language at all State institutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government planned to make the whole of\nSri Lanka trilingual. There was a Cabinet decision to this effect in 2012.  A trilingual dictionary with pronunciation\nhas been prepared by the Department of Official languages and is now available\nonline.  https:\/\/www.trilingualdictionary.lk\/<\/a>) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A ten year national plan for a trilingual Sri\nLanka  was published in 2012, by the government Policy Research & Information Unit [PRIU<\/em>]. This plan said, inter alia, in Phase 1 there will be a\nnational cadre of 1st and 2nd language teachers, there will be school textbooks\nand cassettes of songs in all three languages.  \nAt phase 2 English and the 2nd<\/sup> language will be introduced to\nGrade 5 exam, as well as O and A levels, and a pass in them will be compulsory\nto proceed further. All university students will be taught to be competent in\nSinhala, Tamil and English.  There will\nbe exams for trilingual competence for government servants. There will also be\nan appreciation of cultural practices of Sinhala and Tamil dance, music, drama\nliterature and rituals.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The notion of a trilingual Sri Lanka was\nwelcomed by the \u2018minorities\u2019. Every citizen must learn all three languages said\nM.S.M. Ashraff in 1998. Every Sri Lankan should be able to speak Sinhala and\nTamil, said Mano Ganesan  in 2017. Estate\nemployees and residents in Nallathanni protested against the defacing of the\nEnglish and Tamil language names on the name board of Sri Pada. The protesters\ndemanded that the authorities punish those responsible for the crime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How trilingual was Sri Lanka, really. The last\nCensus, of 2012 gave the following figures for Language literacy by ethnicity\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                           \nS            T        E<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka                           79.7%    26.4% \n30.8%<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinhalese\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 96.4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 5.3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a031.1 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lankan Tamil\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a017.3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a094.1\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a024.3 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indian Tamil\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a020.9\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a086.2\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a019.4 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lankan Moor\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a040.6\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a094.8\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a038.7 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burgher                           77.0      29.1     97.4  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malay                               81.8     97.1     66.8\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Table 10.4:\nLanguage literacy by ethnicity, 2012 Census) .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This table shows that 79.7% spoke Sinhala,\n30.8% spoke English and just 26.4% spoke Tamil. This means that the rank order\nof use was Sinhala, English and Tamil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here comes the second\nstatistic. The Schools Census, Ministry of Education 2017 said that there were a total of 3,055,926 Sinhala Medium\npupils, 1,025,358 Tamil Medium pupils and 84,720 English Medium pupils. According\nto this Census there were 6,332 Sinhala  medium\nschools  and 3009  Tamil medium schools  There were 558 schools which taught in Sinhala\n& English, 173  schools which taught\nin Tamil & English  ,\n75 schools teaching in Sinhala & Tamil \nand  47  schools which \ntaught in Sinhala, Tamil & English . The Northern district had 898 Tamil medium\nschools and 28     Sinhala medium\nschools.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third\nstatistic is also from education. All Island Tamil medium schools short\ndrama competition organized by the Tower Hall Theatre Foundation and sponsored\nby the Education Ministry had 50 schools participating in 2016.The All Island\nSchools Drama Competition for Sinhala medium schools had 300 schools\nparticipating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yahapalana\ngovernment announced that it was going in for trilingual education in a big\nway.  In 2018 Cabinet approval was\nobtained for two trilingual schools. Trilingual Mixed National Schools for\nGrades 6-13 in Nanuoya, Nuwara Eliya, at the cost of Rs. 800 million, and in\nWellawatte, Colombo, at the cost of Rs 900 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, Cabinet\napproved a proposal for a trilingual mixed National school in Peradeniya, at an\nestimated cost of Rs 1,141 million. \nYahapalana government said it had also started\ntrilingual schools in Kurunegala, Kandy, Colombo and Meerigama and intends to\nhave more trilingual schools in future. It also plans\nto convert existing schools into trilingual National schools in the near\nfuture. Students of\nall nationalities will be allowed to study in any of the 3 languages.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trilingual education\nwas loudly welcomed by Christians, Muslims and Marxists. All schools must adopt a trilingual policy. Teaching should\nbe in one medium but they must also learn the other two languages, said\nCardinal Malcolm Ranjith in 2016. At least one subject should be taught in\nTamil and one in English to Sinhala students and vice versa said Elmo de Silva\nin 2016. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ministry\nof education should see to the teaching and testing of bilingual (Sinhala and\nTamil) competencies or trilingual (Sinhala, Tamil and English) competencies\nfrom the primary level up to higher-secondary level, said DEW Gunasekera in\n2008. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof Furkan,\nprincipal of Zahira, pointed out that in the new Tri-lingual National Schools\nall children should learn all three languages from Year 1 to Year 13 to be\nreally tri-lingual. This will also mean that when they enter local Universities\nthey will be more competent in the English Language to handle higher education\nat tertiary level here or even overseas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is unlikely that\nYahapalana has a clear policy on trilingual education. The idea, it seems, is\nto teach each  pupil solely in one\nlanguage . That is easy and convenient. That will  of course, continue to  keep pupils  separated  according to language , which is what the\npolicy is trying to avoid. Hopefully  the\npupils will probably be brought together for \ngames, art and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNESCO has   made recommendations on this matter,  first in 1999 and in 2003. UNESCO\nmaintains that initial\ninstruction must be  in the\nmother tongue, but this must now be supplemented by other languages. Schools\nmust now move from monolingualism to bilingualism and\nmultilingualism. Children should  be given a \u2018multilingual education. They must be taught\nat least three languages, the mother tongue, a regional or national language\nand an international language, decalred UNESCO. Critics however, warn that pupils\nshould learn the international language, as an additional language and not to\nthe extent that it endangers one’s native language.  ( CONTINUED) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS With the \u2018rise\u2019 of the Tamil language in Sri Lanka,  there was the desire to bring Tamil to the same level as Sinhala. Sinhala ranks first in  all trilingual lists including  name boards on roads. A suggestion  was made that the languages should be vertically written, on name boards,  with Sinhala in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}