Shürhozelie for common Naga language

Minister for Higher Education & Urban Development and president of Ura Academy, Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu on Thursday said that a common Naga language can come about only if it was based on the existing languages and dialects.
Shürhozelie said artificial languages have no place for growth unless based on existing languages.
Addressing the inaugural of the two-day conference of All Literature Committees and Language Officers for Tribal language Development at Zonal Hall, Shürhozelie called upon literature committees to discourage the use of Nagamese if they wanted to develop a common language.
Stating that Nagamese was a lingua-franca, the minister said students should be discouraged from speaking Nagamese in schools.
Referring to SCERT, Education Department and NBSE as the three task forces in the education field, he urged the three departments to work closely together.
“If these forces work together, the future of the children will remain safe in their hands,” he said.
Shürhozelie also asked the literature committee and the language officials to have good coordination and make all efforts to further develop literature in the state.
Prof. Jayasree from the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) Mysore, in her address said mother tongue should be preserved and given importance to preserve other social values, heritage, etc. Lauding the State government for introducing all its 17 languages in the school, she said Nagaland was the first state in the country to have given equal importance to all languages.
Delivering the keynote address, principal secretary, School Education and SCERT, Banuo Jamir said language can be a uniting factor or a divisive factor. She also said language gives expression to human feelings and that it needed to be developed.
An important feature of the conference was the inauguration of a primer in Konyak by the Higher Education minister.
The conference was attended by Director of School Education, Nipusilie Angami; Director SCERT, Vipralhou Kesiezie; chairman of Nagaland Board of School Education, Nini Meru; members of the literature committee and other literature officials.