Place and role of mother tongue has been a controversial subject, so far as medium of education for the children from pre primary, primary  and secondary stage is concerned. Almost all English medium schools in Odisha have given up Odia totally, though now they have introduced Odia from Standard – I stage. But actually their students of standard VIII or above know very little about Odia language and literature. Even in our Odia medium schools the condition is not sound at all. Odia speaking children in Odia schools also have been suffering from the same problem--speaking and writing good Odia.

Our grand old patriot of Orissa, Utkal Gaurav Madhusudan Das, the shining Sun of the 20th century Utkal, once expressed his agony as follows: -

If one having no emotional attachment to his mother, motherland and mother tongue is regarded as wise man, then to whom is “fool or  idiot”  applicable?

During my B.Ed. course in 1955 at David Hare Training College, Baliganj, Calcutta I took up English, Bengali and Sanskrit as method subject. The English professor while taking our first English method subject started his introductory lecture as follows, –

“I taught English as Teaching method for 25 years under British rule. Then my first instruction to my students was “If you want to learn English, you must read English, write English, speak English, and sleep in English, dream in English and so on. But now after independence, I start my lecture as – If you want to excel in English, love your mother tongue and be a master in it.”

But now the climate has already changed. Craze for teaching English to Odia kiddies of 2+, 3+ age groups has been a fantastic feature. It is observed every where in Orissa.  Even in remote rural areas, English medium schools are available within easy reach.

The reason is as clear as day light. L.P., U.P. and M.E. schools are run with scarcity of room and teaching staff. Most schools are managed for years with one, two or three teachers where minimum number is three, five or seven. The same condition  is seen regarding number of class rooms; - five classes are run in two or three rooms and seven or eight classes are managed in three or four rooms. Under these circumstances, teaching is simply a farce.

Another humiliating feature is now thrusted upon the teaching process by the official bureaucrats. Sikshya Sahayak, Para-Teacher, with Rs.7000/- or Rs.12000/- remuneration, that to once in six months or in a year are appointed for the teaching profession. Still more humiliating situation, which these Sikshya Sahayakas are bound to undergo is that many of them having B.Ed. or M.Ed. degrees will be placed under their heads being simply C.T. In these humiliating conditions proper teaching is not at all possible.

The essence of the above discussions is that, solvent guardians find no other alternative and are forced to send their children to English medium schools.  Again it has become a justified point that in present age of globalization, the world has become one. An educated and qualified person well-versed in English can get his job inside his state, country or outside his country. So, learning good English has become most important.

Hence, it goes without saying that our children should have sufficient command over English language. Specifically those who aspire for foreign job or better job in public or in private sector outside one’s state or even in the same state. But it is seen that a CBSE  or ICSE student  passing X or XII has a little command over English. Some of them speak good English but are unable to write proper English. It is because they all lack the proper language knowledge and skill. Therefore, it is most essential to be master in one’s mother tongue, so that one can be a master in English. It has already been observed that students having sound knowledge in their mother tongue can easily and quickly pick up command over any other language including English.

Dear parents, you teach your  2+ and 3+ children  A for apple or B for bat  and Ba Ba black sheep rhyme. But at the same time you also teach them our mother tongue-Odia. Books for learning Odia alphabets with pictures and Odia rhymes are now abundant in the market. The present Odia writers and poets are no less genius than writers of other Indian languages including English. Their poems, stories and picture books can be collected and studied so that our children’s command over language will be improved and they can be master in English.