Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (MM/GA)

Mangalore, Apr 13: It seems that there is no end for the conflict of selecting a script for Konkani to be taught in the schools as optional subject from the coming scholastic year.  After a long struggle by Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy and Konkani buffs in the state, the government has decided to teach Konkani in schools.  But the script row is threatening the smooth flow of activities of the Academy to get prepared to teach Konkani in schools.

The Karnataka State Konkani Linguistic Minority Educational Institutions’ Association which consists of 18 managements and 40 schools has shown interest in teaching Konkani in Devanagari script. Honorary secretary of the association, K Mohan Pai has argued that, students had been given the choice to study the language in either Kannada or Devanagari script.

But the Konkani Sahitya Academy president Eric Ozario has opposed the use of both the scripts. He has also cleared that, the decision to use Kannada script was based on the opinion given by a majority of the stakeholders.

Two years ago academy had collected an opinion from all the stakeholders of Konkani regarding this issue. The academy went with the verdict of the majority who were in favour of Kannada script. But owing to political changes which took place in the state, the decision to include Konkani in schools was delayed.

But the government of Karnataka has taken a historical decision on January 31 to introduce Konkani in the state. It is described as a milestone in the development of Konkani. Since more number of Konkani speaking people are there in Karnataka than Goa and that most them use Kannada script for their day-to-day purposes, the Academy has been promoting Kannada script.  But the row is not ending with many coming forward to take the credit for this achievement.   So again the script row is under debate. The question is 'will it trouble again?'