Roy Castelino Flags off Konkani Jagrathi Abhiyan
Mangaluru: The Konkani Sahitya Academy held a press meet at the Academy office, MCC premises, here on June 2.
Addressing the mediapersons, registrar of the academy Dr Devdas Pai said that from 2007, Konkani had been started as a subject in schools and is being taught in DK and Udupi districts. There are 50,000 Konkani speaking students in three districts of the coastal region. From the past five years, students have had the opportunity to write the exam in Konkani, Devanagari and Kannada fonts.
He further said that in the academic year 2015-16, 69 students from 9 schools had answered the 10th standard Konkani examination in the Kannada font and 8 students from 3 schools had answered it in the Devanagari font. All the 77 students have scored above 90 percent marks in the examination.
Likewise, there is an opportunity for university students to take up Konkani as a language. In Rosario, Padua, Kirem, Ikala and St Aloysius colleges, students have taken Konkani as a language. From this year onwards, Konkani will also be taught in St Philomena and Milagres college. An MA course in Konkani will begin in Mangalore University too. “We are trying our best to get permission from the government to start Konkani as a subject at the PUC level,” he added.
He also said that to receive permission, more and more students are needed who take up Konkani as the third language in 10th standard. “But at present, there are very few students who take Konkani in 10th standard. If we increase the number of students who take up this subject in 10th standard, we will be able to get permission from the government to start Konkani language in PUC also.”
This year more than 500 students from 8th, 9th and 10th standard have taken books from the academy but only 77 students had answered the examination. Students study all the four languages but during the examination, they answer only English, Kannada and Hindi. When Konkani was started as a subject in schools from 6th standard onwards, there were 1500 students. So far, more than 10,000 students have studied the subject in schools.
President of Konkani Sahitya Academy, Roy Castelino said that from June 2 to 16, academy members will travel to other districts and visit 100 schools to create awareness among the students. “If the students answer in Konkani, there are chances of scoring high marks. This year, all the students who answered the Konkani examination have scored above 95%; two students have scored 100% marks in Konkani. This will help the students to increase their total marks percentage.”
Roy further said, “We will meet every school’s administration and insist them to encourage Konkani speaking students to take up Konkani as a subject. The Government has also assured to support all Konkani learning students. If we get more students in the coming days, we will start Konkani in PUC, D.Ed / B.Ed.”
The Konkani Jagrathi Abhiyan 2016 was flagged off by Roy Castelino along with other dignitaries at the academy premises. Members of the Konkani Sahitya Academy Devdas Pai, Ashok Kasargod, Dr Arvind Shanbagh, Kamal Shet, Shekar Gowda, Yaqoob Ahmed, Shivananda Shet, Lullus Cutinha, Lawrence D’Souza, Dr Varija and Mamatha Kamath were also present.