Stakeholder Consultation Meeting Discusses Platform for Writing Competitions in Indian Languages

New Delhi: Sanjay Kumar, Secretary of the Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL), Ministry of Education, chaired a stakeholder consultation meeting on June 28, 2024, to deliberate on the creation of a platform for organizing district, state, and national-level writing competitions in Indian languages. The meeting saw participation from officials of DoSEL, CBSE, NBT, NCERT, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS), SCERTs, and representatives from nine states.

Sanjay Kumar underscored the importance of integrating these initiatives into a structured framework through collaboration with various stakeholders. He highlighted that DoSEL would aim to achieve multilingualism by involving language experts, while CBSE would seek support from SCERTs to assist in the evaluation process. Schools will organize competitions at the district and state levels in various languages, with the top participants advancing to a national-level competition organized by CBSE. Sanjay Kumar emphasized the need for collaboration between SCERTs and the National Book Trust (NBT) to identify and onboard popular regional language books for the National Digital Library.

JS (I&T) Prachi Pandey informed that the ongoing efforts and initiatives undertaken by states and union territories regarding reading and writing will be a key topic of discussion during the upcoming review meeting scheduled for mid-July 2024. The stakeholder consultation marks a collaborative effort by DoSEL and various stakeholders to create a comprehensive platform aimed at nurturing reading and writing skills in Indian languages at all levels.

The initiative seeks to develop a methodology to promote students’ reading and writing skills across diverse languages, fostering multilingualism and encouraging children to express themselves in their native languages. Discussions during the meeting focused on key aspects such as age groups, participating languages, and the types of writing skills to be encouraged.