Cuttack, June 8: A PIL has been filed in Orissa High Court over the non-inclusion of Oriya as a subject for teaching in Kendriya Vidyalaya, Puri.

The PIL contended that there had been repeated demands from parents of students to include Oriya as a subject but the school authorities, they alleged, had turned a deaf ear to it.. They also said the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan was “duty bound” to teach Oriya as the first language up to Class VII.

Somanath Mishra (73), former principal of S.C.S. College in Puri, said the Kendriya Vidyalaya was not teaching Oriya as a compulsory subject at primary level or as an optional subject in the higher classes, depriving Oriya students from learning their mother tongue in school.

The PIL seeks a direction to the Kendriya Vidyalaya in Puri to teach Oriya as a subject. The high court, however, is yet to take it up for hearing.

The state government had on June 11, 2004, issued a circular for all English medium public schools in the state to include Oriya as a compulsory subject up to Class VII.

“The medium of instruction in these schools can be English or any other Indian language, but Oriya as a subject shall be taught to all pupils compulsorily up to Class VII, excluding the domiciles of other states and pupils of public servants on transfer from other states,” the state school and mass education department had specified in the circular.

The petition stated that all schools in the state affiliated to boards such as CBSE or ICSE were teaching Oriya as a compulsory subject up to Class VIII and optional subject up to Class X. “But the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan is deliberately not including Oriya in its scheme of studies,” the petition alleged.

“Oriya is the state language as declared by the state legislature under Article 345 of the Constitution. Therefore, every citizen of Orissa has legitimate and constitutional right to learn Oriya in school, especially when the school is controlled and managed by the Central government,” the petitioner contended.

The petitioners further pointed out that the national policy envisages adoption of three-languages formula under which non-Hindi states will have regional language as first language, English as second language and Hindi or Sanskrit as third language.