‘Native Speakers’ to keep Koya language alive among soon-to-be displaced tribal children in Chintoor agency of Andhra Pradesh

AP govt. to engage Native Speakers to teach Koya language in Chintoor agency schools. SMC to identify & engage native speakers. UNO declared 2022-32 as Int'l Decade of Indigenous Languages. 15 native speakers to teach 323 tribal students in 6 V.R. Puram, 5 Yatapaka & 1 Chintoor mandal schools. SMC to pay honorarium from School Maintenance Fund. Initiative to help children develop cultural bond with mother tongue & read literature before displacement.

In an initiative aimed at revitalising the Koya tribal language, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to rope in ‘Native Speakers’ who will teach the students of the primary schools in their native language in Chintoor agency of Alluri Sitarama Raju district. 

The School Management Committee (SMC) has been entrusted with the task of identifying and engaging the native speakers, who should be living in that particular village or gram panchayat. The SMC is formed with the parents of the students enrolled in the respective schools.

The United Nations Organisation (UNO) has declared 2022-32 as the International Decade of Indigenous Languages and its estimates claimed that ‘‘at least 50 percent of today’s spoken languages will be extinct or seriously endangered by 2100”.

By August 10, the Andhra Pradesh Tribal Welfare Department has given its approval for appointment of 15 native speakers (Koya language) in Chintoor agency covering six schools in V.R. Puram mandal, five in Yatapaka mandal and one in Chintoor mandal. 

“As many as 323 tribal students of class 1 to 3 enrolled in the 12 government schools will be taught in their mother tongue under the initiative titled Mother Tongue-Based Multi-Lingual Education (MTB-MLE)“, said an order issued by the Tribal Welfare Department (August 10).

“The native speakers have almost been appointed in the Chintoor agency. Their primary task is to teach the academic syllabus, prescribed by the State government, in their native language (Koya),” Integrated Tribal Development Authority (ITDA-Chintoor) Project Officer Suraj Ganore told The Hindu.

The School Management Committee will pay the honorarium to the native speakers from the School Maintenance Fund. The upper age limit to become a native speaker is 50.