The House (Assembly) Committee on linguistic minority led by Minister for Women and Child Development Usha Devi met here on Tuesday and reviewed the requirement of language teachers in different schools of Ganjam and Gajapati districts, particularly to teach Telugu student
The committee reviewed the problems of Telugu-speaking students in Odisha and Odia-speaking students in Andhra Pradesh. It expressed its surprise over Odisha residence certificates obtained by Telugu teachers from Andhra Pradesh. The committee made a study on the requirement of Telugu teachers in the schools functioning in Telugu-dominating areas like Chikiti, Patrapur and Rangeilunda blocks.
Mention may be made that the State Cabinet recently approved appointment of language teachers in Telugu, Urdu and Bengali in schools of the State to facilitate teaching language to the students having mother tongue other than Odia.
The MlAs of Ganjam and Gajpati district Ramesh Chyau Pattnaik, V Sugnan Kumari Deo, Adikand Sethi, Purnna Chandra Swain, Debaraj Mohanty, district Collector Dr Kishan Kumar, Brahmapur Sub-Collector and DCPs of both Ganjam and Gajapati attended the review meeting.
School and Mass Education Department officials appraised of the committee of the measures taken to facilitate education of Telugu-speaking students studying in Ganjam and Gajapati and Telugu teachers appointed in these districts.
The Odisha and Andhra Pradesh Governments had reached an agreement in 1980 for benefits of students of languages of Odia and Telugu in their respective schools. As per the agreement, both the States would depute 60 teachers each to teach their respective languages. Surprisingly, while the Andhra Government has reportedly deputed 60 teachers to Odisha, the Odisha Government has not sent Odia teachers to Andhra, clearly indicating the apathy of the Odisha Government towards Odia language.
The committee members advised the Government to immediately send Odia teachers to Andhra Pradesh. A committee headed by the District Inspector of Schools of Ganjam would soon visit Andhra to examine the problems faced by Odia-speaking students, said Collector Dr Kishan Kumar.