Linguapax
Govt to monitor implementation of language policy
Friday, 14 October 2011 09:50
The National Languages and Social Integration Ministry will shortly implement a monitoring system to check whether public servants who had learnt Tamil and Sinhala languages were making use of the language skills they had acquired for the betterment of the society.
National Languages and Social Integration Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara, on Wednesday, said that they would take steps to send public servants who were newly trained in Tamil to Tamil areas while those who were newly trained in Sinhala to Sinhala areas.
Nanayakkara assured that no public correspondence would be sent only in Sinhala to the Northern and Eastern areas, "If that is so anybody could make a complaint," he added.
He said that that their observations indicate that those who learnt the Tamil language continued to converse or carry out activities in Sinhala instead of making use of the Tamil language they learnt.
According to him, nearly 26,000 public servants are learning the Sinhala and Tamil languages. "Our ultimate aim is to place them in respective institutions and ministries where Tamil language translators are not available," he added.
He said that he discussed with the Secretary of Public Administration on the possibility of sending public servants to serve in areas where transactions were done in both Sinhala and Tamil media.