The attempts for creating separate and independent departments for all the nine tribal languages being taught here at Tribal Regional language (TRl) Department of Ranchi University (RU) seems to be a farfetched dream. Recently, for the smooth functioning and advancement of each tribal language course, proposal for creating separate language departments for all tribal languages was given a green signal.
Governor, Draupadi Murmu who also happens to be the Chancellor of the universities gave her consent and had ordered the officials to develop the TRl department as centre of excellence, a year ago. Also, during the foundation laying ceremony of new TRl building on December 28, 2017, the Governor asked the officials to strive for the best in developing the State-of-the-Art facilities at TRl department while expressing here concern over separating each tribal language department at the earliest.
However, according to TRl Department Head, Triveni Nath Sahu, regardless of several promises, no serious effort is being made regarding the division of departments or else towards anything like creation of language laboratories or museum etc to boost the temperament of students, opted for tribal language courses. According to Sahu, the condition of the department, more or less remains the same where even basic amenities appear to be a distant dream.
“During a meeting with the Governor including all senior officials of Department of Higher, Technical and Skill development on September 6, 2017, suggestion of creating separate departments for four tribal languages which includes Kurukh, Nagpuri, Mundari and Santhali on a pilot basis was tabled but the proposal was rejected then and there,” Sahu said.
“According to the Secretary of the department, approval for creating separate departments for each tribal language would lead to additional creation of posts under different cadres, severely influencing the present setup. The officials during the meeting stated that this initiative cannot be taken up,” Sahu added. On enquiring about the student-teacher ratio, which is one of the prime concerns in a department that have ample strength of students, Sahu further added, “The teachers recruited on ad-hoc basis for a few tribal language courses will not serve the purpose at all. At present, we conduct classes in two shifts. In each language course, at least 7 permanent teaching staffs are required. Covering all language courses, more than 350 students are enrolled in first year right now.”
Also, the department which was constituted with an aim to explore all the hidden aspects of tribal cultures, lingos, scripts while preserving the rich heritance has been so far lagging behind in R&D activities as well as in publication of journals.
“The attempts are being made from the university’s side to upgrade the TRl department, proposal for which has been sent to the concerned officials. Since the admission process was changed in 2015, the process of creation of new posts for the respective languages may take some time,” said, RU, CCDC, Girijanath Shahdeo.
Currently, Nagpuri, Mundari, Kurukh, Kurmali, Santhali, Khortha, Panchpargania, Khadia and Ho are the nine regional and tribal languages being taught at the department functioning jointly. According to the Department Head, Santhali, Ho and Mundari language courses have more number of students but there too the preliminary arrangements are in a shambles.