Promoting (M)other Tongue: Schools supplied Kashmiri textbooks using Urdu, English words

Srinagar, Mar 16: The J&K Board of School Education (JKBOSE) is supplying Kashmiri textbooks with words from foreign languages to the schools for promoting the mother tongue through education.
Supplying the textbooks printed as back as 2011 to schools across the valley, the board has not updated them for 7 years now even as the contents of the textbooks are full of errors throughout.
Instead of focusing on the Kashmiri vocabulary, the board has used words from English and Urdu languages multiple times in the textbooks of several classes.
For instance, while the native words ‘moul’ and ‘mouj’ should have been used for father and mother respectively, the JKBOSE has instead used ‘daddy’ and ‘mummy’ in the Kashmiri textbook of class 3.
Seemingly running out of native Kashmiri terms, the JKBOSE has used words like ‘hookah’ (hubble-bubble), ‘breakfast’ and ‘khanjar’ (dagger) in the textbooks of different classes.
Although the JKBOSE recently updated the textbook of class 5th, Prof Shaad Ramzan who is part of the editorial board of the Kashmiri textbooks expressed apology over the board not updating the erroneous textbooks.
“To be honest, if there are instances of words from other languages being used in the Kashmiri textbooks, it is our fault. It should not have happened. The board should update it straightaway,” Prof Ramzan added.
Secretary J&K Academy of Art Culture and Languages, Aziz Hajini who is also in the editorial board interestingly defended the usage of words from other languages in the Kashmiri textbook.
“A living language like Kashmiri is capable of absorbing words from other languages. One should not be conservative,” Hajini argued.
Languages including Sanskrit where the linguists “resisted the introduction of words from other languages” Hajini said were “almost extinct”.
Hajini said that in view of the children addressing their parents in English, “If we use ‘mouj’ instead of mummy in the text book, it would seem unnatural and unrealistic”.
“If we remain conservative over our language, it would die. Even the Hindi film industry uses Urdu language under a Hindi banner,” Hajini said.
Director Academics JKBOSE, Dr Farooq Ahmad Peer claimed that they were updating the erroneous Kashmiri textbooks in stages.
“We cannot update all the faulty books in one go as it has financial implications as well,” Peer added.
Replacing all the faulty books at once would put a “burden on the board’s exchequer”, Public Relations Officer JKBOSE, Showkat Usman, said.
“The board brings out the books on its own funds. Now, if we replace all the books, it would cost us in lakhs of rupees and affect the fee structure of the students,” Usman added.
Kashmiri language is already a compulsory subject at the secondary level.