The Official Languages Commission (OLC) has recommended several constitutional amendments be made to eliminate apparent contradictions and ambiguities contained in Chapter IV of the Constitution headed as Language.
The Commission has recommended that Clause (18) of this Chapter should be amended to read as “Sinhala and Tamil, the national languages should be the official languages of Sri Lanka” and “that English may be used for official purposes.”
At present Clause 18 (1) reads that the official language of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Clause 18 (2) that Tamil shall also be an official language and Clause 18 (3) that English shall be the link language.
The aforesaid and other amendments to the Constitution as well as the progress that has been made with regard to the implementation of the Official Languages Policy (OLP) of the country are contained in the 2010 report of the OLC complied under the auspices of its former Chairman Raja Collure and which was presented to President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The difficulty of corresponding with Government institutions in the language of their choice has been expressed as a major grievance particularly by the Tamil speaking people in the North and East as well as in the estate sector due to the lack of officials proficient in that language.
With the setting up of the Ministry of National Languages and Social Integration in April this year, the OLC which functions under its purview has adopted a five-fold policy to expedite the implementation of the language policy.
N.Selvakkumaran, the new Chairman of the Commission said that the focus would be on advising the Government on the language policy, creating awareness, facilitating Government institutions to advance a tri-language policy, review implementation and enforce the legal requirements on language. “Steps must be taken to put place national education and recruitment policies in line with the declared national language policy of the country,” he said.
The Government has already gazetted the names of those in State institutions who would be the Chief Official Languages Implementation Officer and these include Secretaries to Ministries, Heads of Departments, Chief Secretaries of Provincial Councils and Municipal Commissioners and Secretaries in local government institutions.
The Chief Implementation Officers are required to have a sound knowledge of the laws on the OLP and evolve a framework for the implementation and supervision within their institution.
The others amendments recommended are to provide for the right to education in any of the three languages as well as have the right to be instructed in any courses for students in higher education institutions in either of the languages.
It is also recommended that members of elected bodies including Parliament and Provincial Councils should be enabled to use English in their deliberations while those who join the public service be required to attain the required levels of proficiency in English within a reasonable period of time to enhance the quality of their service.
The conversion of the OLC into an independent institution with braches in the periphery too has been recommended while finances for the implementation of the OLP are made available to the Commission.
The OLC has taken several steps in the past few years to implement the policy including action to compel that street sign boards and place names be displayed in all three languages along with destination boards on buses while monitoring to ensure that public sector notices and advertisements are made in all languages.
The OLC is also encouraging private sector institutions to take measures to train their personnel in the use of both national languages. “There are several private sector banks that have started their own programs in language training. It is a very encouraging fact,” OLC Chairman Selvakkumaran said. |
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