Need pragmatic policy to encourage mother tongue in school: Venkaiah Naidu

Ahmedabad, Oct 14 (IANS) Calling languages as soul of society, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said that India should have a pragmatic policy to encourage mother tongues at early stages of school.

Inaugurating two-day International Conference on 'The Journey of Indian Languages: Perspectives on Culture and Society', Naidu said : "We should have a pragmatic policy to encourage mother tongue at the early stages of schooling and gradually move on to other languages."

The program was organised by B.R. Ambedkar Open University (BAOU) and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) here.

Naidu said that language is the binding thread of human existence and it has been a vehicle, from time immemorial, for communication of thoughts, feelings and ideas.

"Our societies have been built on the recognition of the fact that language is the lifeblood of a culture and building block of civilization. The richness of a culture is evident from the vocabulary, the syntax," he said.

Gujarat Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasmaji, Principal Secretary, Higher and Technical Education, Anju Sharma, BAOU Vice Chancellor Pankaj Vani, and IGNOU Vice Chancellor Ravindra Kumar were also present during the occasion.

Naidu called for good researches that would aim to cement and enhance India's tradition of excellent critical, historical, theoretical and creative scholarship across a full range of periods, genres and linguistic research areas.

"Open Universities are making higher education opportunities available to a much larger number of students because they offer flexible schedules enabling learners like women and working population to study anywhere, anytime," he said.