Ranchi University: Endless wait

Ranchi, April 13: The state human resources department is sitting on a Ranchi University proposal for two years to sanction as many as 174 posts of teachers for tribal and regional languages, exposing the state government’s apathy towards preserving its tribal heritage despite several public promises to the contrary.

The result is that over the years, the university’s post-graduate department of tribal and regional languages is left with only five teachers for three of nine languages.

The three being taught now are Kurukh, Nagpuri and Santhali while there are no teachers for six others, Mundari, Kharia, Panchpargania, Khortha, Kurmali and Ho.

Former vice-chancellor and Rajya Sabha MP Ramdayal Munda — he use to teach Mundari — along with members of the varsity’s post-graduate department has taken up the issue with the state government, including HRD secretary Sudhir Prasad.

“The government hasn’t been able to give any attention towards promotion and preservation of tribal and regional languages (TRLs). This attitude is wrong,” said B.P. Keshri, who retired as professor in 1993.

A couple of years back, efforts by Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) to recommend appointment of 11 tribal language teachers ran into some technicalities.

The JPSC recommended teachers for only Mundari though these teachers were qualified to teach other tribal and regional languages. The JPC’s recommendation was based on the decision of the erstwhile Bihar government which had sanctioned posts for Mundari language only.

“All that the Jharkhand government needs to do is to sanction the posts for all TRLs and not merely for Mundari. We have been waiting for over two years for it to rectify this technical flaw,” confided a senior JPC officer.

RU vice-chancellor V.P. Sharan told The Telegraph that he, along with Munda, Keshri and head of the post-graduate tribal languages department G.R. Gounjhu met the HRD secretary a couple of days back to apprise him about the state of affairs.

“The initial proposal to sanction as many as 174 posts of tribal language teachers was sent two years back. We have sent another fresh proposal,” he said.

State higher education director Anjani Kumar Shrivastava said they were trying to sort out the matter soon. “For certain things, cabinet decisions would be required. We are in the process of preparing proposals,” he added.

Gounjhu revealed that out of the five teachers, at least two (including him) would retire by 2011. “We are already short-staffed. Five teachers teaching three languages while there are no teachers to guide students in the remaining six languages. We managed to get two teachers from Marwari and Sisai colleges,” he added.