Annual Report Official Languages Commission 4 th Floor Basha Mandiraya, 341/7, Kotte Rd., Rajagiriya. - 1 -
The Honourable Minister of Constitutional Affairs & National Integration Hon. Minister, The Official Languages Commission Presents the Annual Report for the period of January the first, 2006 to December the thirty first, 2006 to the parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka through your good office pursuant to the Section 32 of the Official Languages Commission Act No. 18 of 1991. Yours respectfully, Raja Collure Chairman Official Languages Commission - 2 -
Annual Report for Year 2006 1. The Official Languages Commission of Sri Lanka was appointed by His Excellency the President under the Official Languages Commission Act No. 18 of 1991, to monitor and supervise compliance with the Language provisions of chapter IV of the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. 2. OUR MISSION Is to see a Government Service consisting of Officials who are capable of transacting business with any citizen of the state in any one of the two Official Languages or the link language on any given day at any given location. 3. OUR VISION 3.1 Accordingly, the Commission's mandate is to monitor and supervise the compliance of the constitutional provisions regarding the use of language by the Government, to advise the Government on measures necessary to ensure such compliance and to take punitive action against those responsible when such compliance is deliberately prevented or perverted. The Commission is also empowered to accept and investigate complaints from citizens who believe their linguistic rights have been violated and to give them redress. 3.2 Since 1956 Sinhala has been the Official Language of Sri Lanka, made effective by the Official Languages Act No. 33 of 1956. Provision was made for the reasonable use of Tamil Language by the special provisions Act of 1958. The Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka passed on 31 st August 1978, made Sinhala and Tamil as National Languages. The 13 th Amendment to the Constitution passed on November 14 th 1987, made Tamil also an Official Language in addition to Sinhala, which had been the sole Official Language since 1956. This same amendment gave sanction to the use of English as a 'link ' language. - 3 -
3.3 Through the 16 th amendments to the constitution chapter IV on Language was further defined and elaborated. Among other things these provisions made Sinhala the language of record and administration in the seven provinces in the south and gave Tamil the same position in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. By virtue of the powers vested by article 22(1) of the constitution, President has directed by notifications published in the Extra Ordinary Gazettes that both Sinhala and Tamil Languages be used as the Languages of administration in 29 Divisional Secretaries Divisions. 4. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE: The members of the Official Languages Commission are appointed by Her Excellency the President.The members of the present Commission were appointed for a three year term with effect from 15.03.2004 Over the year under review the Commission consisted of following members. Mr.Raja Collure (Chairman ) - from 01.01.2006 to 31.12.2006 Prof. S.Thillainathan (Member ) - from 01.01.2006 to 31.12.2006 Mr.N.P.M.Saifdeen (Member ) - from 01.01.2006 to 31.12.2006 Prof. Somarathne Balasooriya (Member ) - from 01.01.2006 to 31.12.2006 Prof. J.B.Disanayaka (Member ) - from 15.03.2006 to 31.12.2006 Prof. A.V.Suraweera (Member ) - from 15.03.2006 to 31.12.2006 Mr.Senarath Gunasena S.L.A.S Class I, functioned as the Ex - Officio Secretary of the Official Languages Commission from 01.01.2006 to 31.12.2006-4 -
5. STAFF Staff of the Commission as at 31.12.2006 Designation Approved Actual Comment Cadre Cadre 1. Asst. Secretary 01 * 2. Administrative Officer 01 01 Contract basis 3. Language Officer (Trilingual) 01 01 Contract basis cum Research Officer 4. Finance Asst. 01 01 * 5. Research Assts. 03 01 02 Posts vacant 6. Coordinating Assts. 05 * 05 Posts vacant 7. Chief Clerk 01 * 8. Senior Clerk (Sinhala ) 01 01 9. -do- (Tamil ) 01 01 10. -do- (English ) 01 01 11. Book keeper 01 * 12. Computer Operator 01 01 13. Translator (Sinhala / Tamil) 01 * 14. Stenographer (English ) 01 * 15. Steno /Typist (English ) 01 * 16. Typist (Tamil ) 01 01 17. Drivers 03 03 18. Office Aides 03 03 Total 28 14 * Vacant 6. ADVISORY WORK OF THE COMMISSION For the first time in the history the present Official Languages Commission after making a full study of the situation analyzing and researching on the use of the Official Languages in terms of section 6 (a) of the Official Languages Commission Act No. 18 of 1991 made special recommendations to the government in 2005. It is with gratitude we mention here that the statement made by His Excellency the President on January 14 th, 2006 ( Thaipongal Day) that the Government will implement the Recommendation of the Official Languages Commission. The Commission also prepared Recommendations of the year 2006 after completing a study and analyzing the position with regard to the implementation of the Official Languages Policy of the Government. - 5 -
LANGUAGE AUDITS : In terms of the recommendations of the Commission, delegations of the Commission including the Chairman, Secretary, members and officers of the Commission visited a considerable number of Divisional Secretariats declared as bilingual administrative Divisions as well as Divisional Secretariats where more than 12.5% of the population speaks 2 nd Language during the year 2006. OBSERVATIONS OF THE LANGUAGE AUDITS Divisional Secretariats where Language Audits were conducted, it was observed that there was a severe dearth of Officials who can communicate with Tamil speaking public in Tamil Language. We found at the Language Audits conducted during the year that the majority of the Divisional Secretaries and Assistant Divisional Secretaries have difficulties in transacting business with Tamil speaking people of the area. More than 50% of the officers represented matters at the Language Audits were not aware of the Constitutional Provisions with regard to the Official Languages Policy or the directives issued by the government on the subject. Due to this reason name boards, sign boards, direction boards etc.. appeared only in one language in most of the Divisional Secretariats audited. It was also observed that the forms which are prepared by the Divisional Secretariat were mainly in Sinhala only. It was observed facilities available in these offices to handle administrative matters of the Tamil speaking public in the Tamil Language was greatly inadequate. Although Official Languages Commission and the Department of Official Languages taken steps to overcome this difficulties it was not 100% successful. It was revealed that the Tamil speaking people prefer to write letters in Sinhala because they fear that the letters addressed in Tamil will not get due attention of Tamil speaking people. Due to this reason we observe that there is a problem with regard to the usage of Tamil Language even in bilingual Divisional Secretariats. - 6 -
After the Language Audit it was followed by a seminar cum work-shop for awareness creation among officers of the Divisional Secretariats. These seminar cum workshops were very useful for the officers because the Commission provided set of relevant documents, government circulars regarding language rights including a extract of the part IV of the Constitution of Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka in which the Language Rights and responsibility of the public servants are mentioned very clearly. LANGUAGE AUDITS Conducted from 01.01.2006 31.12.2006 1. Language Audit, Wellawatte Police Station - 24/01/2006 2. Language Audit, Colombo Divisional Secretariat - 31/01/2006 3. Language Audit,Thimbirigasyaya Divisional Secretariat - 06/02/2006 4. Language Audit, Keselwatte Police Station - 14/02/2006 5. Language Audit, Kalpititya Divisional Secretariat - 27/02/2006 6. Language Audit, Puttalam Divisional Secretariat - 27/02/2006 7. Language Audit, Department of Pensions - 06/03/2006 8. Language Audit, Kotahena Police Station - 09/05/2006 9. Language Audit, Badulla Municipal Council - 08/06/2006 10. Language Audit, Soranathota Divisional Secretariat - 09/06/2006 11. Language Audit, Dehiwala Divisional Secretariat - 28/06/2006 12. Language Audit, Wattala Divisional Secretariat - 05/07/2006 13. Language Audit, Bandarawela Divisional Secretariat - 24/07/2006 14. Language Audit, Panwila Divisional Secretariat - 31/07/2006 15. Language Audit, Ukuwela Divisional Secretariat - 01/08/2006 16. Language Audit, Department of Traffic - 02/08/2006 17. Language Audit, Rattota Divisional Secretariat - 07/08/2006 18. Language Audit, Ambanganga Korale Divisional Secretariat- 08/08/2006 19. Language Audit, Kolonnawa Divisional Secretariat - 14/08/2006 20. Language Audit, Haldummulla Divisional Secretariat - 01/09/2006 21. Language Audit, Negambo Divisional Secretariat - 27/09/2006 22. Language Audit, Matale Divisional Secretariat - 04/10/2006 23. Language Audit, Kotapola Divisional Secretariat - 19/10/2006 24. Language Audit, Beruwala Divisional Secretariat - 17/11/2006 25. Language Audit, Nagoda Divisional Secretariat - 18/11/2006 26. Language Audit, Ratnapura Divisional Secretariat - 20/11/2006-7 -
AWARENESS CREATION PROGRAMMES AND USAGE OF SINHALA AND TAMIL AS OFFICIAL LANGUAGES : It was observed at Language Audits carried out during the year lack of awareness and lack of commitment of the officials has created the unsatisfactory situation with regard to implementation of Tamil Language outside the North East and implementation of Sinhala Language in the North-East. Although the direction from the Government have been given to all the Ministries, Departments and other Government institutions no positive actions have been taken by the most Government institutions to implement the Official Languages Policy of the Government. More than 50% of the staff surveyed at the Language Audits admitted that they had never attended the Seminars or Training Programmes conducted on the Official Languages Policy. Therefore it was essential for the Official Languages Commission to conduct awareness creation programmes through out the country. Allocation of funds for these programmes were not sufficient as the funds have been restricted. Fortunately the Official Languages Commission was able to obtain funds for this purpose from the Asia Foundation. With the sponsorship of the Asia Foundation we were able to conduct 18 awareness seminars cum workshops during the year 2006 and create awareness among 1918 officials attached to 13 Divisional Secretariats, one Police Station, One Government Department and one Municipal Council. AWARNESS CREATION PROGRAMMES HELD IN THE YEAR 2006 No. Date Event Place No.of participants 1 2006.02.25 ACWS* Thimbirigasyaya Divisional Secretariat 66 2 2006.03.04 ACWS Colombo Divisional Secretariat 126 3 2006.05.24 ACWS Kotahena Police Station 74 4 2006.06.03 ACWS Department of Pensions 161 5 2006.06.05 ACWS Puttlam Divisional Secretariat 84 6 2006.06.12 ACWS Kalpitiya Divisional Secretariat 74 7 2006.07.18 ACWS Dehiwala Divisional Secretariat 64 8 2006.07.23 ACWS Badulla Municipal Council 73 9 2006.08.04 ACWS Wattala Divisional Secretariat 128 10 2006.09.05 ACWS Kolonnawa Divisional Secretariat 143 11 2006.09.08 ACWS Ukuwela Divisional Secretariat 219 12 2006.09.09 ACWS Rattota Divisional Secretariat 164 13 2006.09.26 ACWS Panwila Divisional Secretariat 82 14 2006.10.03 ACWS Ambanganga Korale Divisional 72 Secretariat 15 2006.10.13 ACWS Haldummulla Divisional Secretariat 141 16 2006.11.26 ACWS Matale Divisional Secretariat 151 17 2006.12.01 ACWS Soranatota Divisional Secretariat 91 Total 1913 * Awareness creation and workshops out of these workshops No. 5 to 17 were conducted with the support of the Asia Foundation - 8 -
II TRAINING POLICE OFFICERS IN THE SECOND OFFICIAL LANGUAGE As was in previous years special attention was forcussed on training of police officers in the Second Official Language in the year 2006 too. More than 95% of the entire Police force are not conversant in Tamil. Therefore need for Training of Police Officers who closely interact with the general public in areas where there are large Tamil speaking minorities living considered priority basis. The Tamil Language training programmes were conducted during the year 2006 as an islandwide programme. Places where such programmes were carried out and the number of police officers who attended the programmes are mentioned below. In the year under review the Commission has taken action to increase the number of such programmes to cover new police divisions. These programmes covered all districts except Jaffna, Mullathivu, Kilinochchi and Mannar. Preliminary discussions have been held with authorities concerned for organizing Second Official Language programmes for police officers serving in police stations in the Northern Province. III COMPILATION OF TEXT BOOKS Copies of the Spoken Tamil Text Book compiled by the Special Committee appointed by the Commission was given to Official Languages Department to train the Instructors who are engaged for Tamil Language Classes. IV PREPARATION OF PHRASE BOOKS (a) The Trilingual Phrase Book for Police Officers Preparation of Trilingual Phrase Book for Police Officers was completed and ready for publications. (b) The Trilingual Phrase Book for Health Sector Personnel Editing of the Trilingual Phrase Book for health sector personnel prepared by the sub committee appointed for the purpose, is in progress as at 31.12.2006. - 9 -
( c) The Trilingual Phrase Book for Officers at front line offices of government institutions. Compilation of the Phrase Book in Sinhala was completed and handed over to the Chairman of the Commission. It will be published after editing and translating into Tamil and English. VI REVISION OF CURRICULA AND TEXT BOOKS The present curricula and text books were prepared over ten years ago and needed revision. Therefore the Commission initiated action to develop a modern curricula Sinhala and, Tamil as a second official languages at two levels - the Basic and Advanced. For this purpose the Commission has appointed two special Sub Committees ( i.e for Sinhala and Tamil ) comprising of linguists and experts form related disciplines. The objectives of these subcommittees are as follows : i. Evaluation of the current language teaching programme and the material used. ii. Developing training aids - (includes use of modern technology) and Making proposals for the improvement of the print and audio-video material used for teaching /learning Particulars regarding Advanced and Basic Tamil Language Training classes for Police Officers, held in 2006 Advanced Tamil Language Programmes for Polilce Officers held in 2006 No Police Inservice Training Institute No. of No. of Classes Participants 1 Badulla Police Inservice Training Institute 3 90 2 Anuradhapura Police Inservice Training Institute 3 87 3 Gampaha Police Inservice Training Institute 2 68 4 Galle Police Inservice Training Institute 2 81 5 Vavuniya Police Inservice Training Institute 1 43 6 Trincomalee Police Inservice Training Institute 2 84 7 Ampara Police Inservice Training Institute 2 90 8 Kurunegala Police Inservice Training Institute 2 69 9 Kirulapana Police Inservice Training Institute 2 110 10 Batticaloa Police Inservice Training Institute 1 41 Sub Total 20 783-10 -
Basic Tami Language Programme No Police Inservice Training Institute No. of Classes No. of Participants 1 Criminal Record Division 1 22 Sub Total 1 22 Grand Total 21 805 5. TRAINING HEALTH SECTOR PERSONNEL IN TAMIL AS THE SECOND OFFICIAL LANGUAGE During the year 2005 the OLC expanded it s training programmes for the training of health sector personnel in the Official Languages particularly in areas where there are large linguistic minorities. These include Welimada, Haputale in the Badulla District commencement of Second Official Language Training Programmes for Nursing Training schools in centres hereto uncovered was another achievement. These include the Nurses Training Institute at Anuradhapura, Badulla, Kandy and Ratnapura. 6. Basic Tamil Languages Programme for Health personnel No Nurses Training Schools/ No. of Classes No. of Participants Hospitals 1 Badulla NTS 2 56 2 Colombo NTS 3 107 3 Ratnapura NTS 3 98 4 Kandy NTS 4 121 5 Anuradhapura NTS 2 40 6 Awissawella Hospital 1 18 7 Badulla General Hospital 2 49 8 Haputale 1 06 9 10 Sub Total 18 495-11 -
Basic Sinhala Language Programmes No Nurses Training Schools/ No. of Classes No. of Participants Hospitals 1 Batticaloa NTS 2 81 2 Batticaloa General Hospital 1 69 Sub Total 3 150 Training of doctors in the use of the Tamil language has also been given priority. Since there was a difficulty in arranging separate programmes for Doctors, they were invited to attend the programmes conducted for nursing personnel. It is observed that owing to the variance of their duty rosters they often find it difficult to attend these programmes regularly. In areas where the Tamil linguistic minority is spread out proficiency of the Tamil language is of paramount importance to health sector personnel. Taking into consideration of these facts doctors attached to hospitals in the Uva Province were allowed to follow the Tamil Language Programmes according to their convenience. COMPLAINTS The Commission has received only 14 written complaints during the year 2006 and investigations have been held and necessary instructions were given to the respondents to comply with the Language Law. Several complaints received over the telephone, through the print and electronic media were investigated and redress were given to the affected parties and remedial action have been taken to prevent repetition of such incidents. The Commission is of the opinion that the paucity of complaints is due to insufficient awareness among the public of its existence and powers. A publicity campaign is therefore being launched to raise the level of awareness. LEGAL ENFORCEMENT The Commission has the power to take legal action on two circumstances with regard to the Implementation of Official Languages Policy : - 12 -
a) When the Head of a Government institution fails to give effect to the recommendations made by the Commission, upon an investigation made on a complaint by public with regard to the violation of language rights. b) When a public officer required to perform official duties in any relevant language, willfully fails or neglects in such duties. With regard to (a) and (b) above, no legal suit has been instituted hitherto against any Government institution or any public officer. NATIONAL AUDIT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE OFFICIAL LANGAUGES POLICY 1. In 2005, the Official Languages Commission decided to conduct a survey in regard to the competence of public servants in the two Official Languages and the Link Language (English). However it was not possible due to various reasons. 2. In order to carryout this survey the Official Languages Commission sought the services of the Deputy Director, Census and Statistics Department who was one of the officers responsible for a survey carried out in respect of language competence by the Department of Census and Statistics in 2000. 3. In March, 2006 the Chairman discussed the matter over the telephone with the Director General Census and Statistics Department in regard to the matter of obtaining the services of the officers concerned. He informed the Chairman that they would be conducting a survey on competence of public servants in the Official Languages in due course and hence there was no necessity to conduct a separate survey. He agreed to insert any questions that we though were necessary to be contained in the questionnaire for the survey. The Official Languages Commission submitted certain questions which in its opinion were pertinent to the survey. 4. In July 2006 the Census and Statistics Department conducted a survey titled Census of Public and Semi-government Sector Employment 2006. The relevant questions appear in cage 11 of the questionnaire, issued by the Department of Census and Statistics suitable action will be taken on the results of the Survey. - 13 -
5. FUNDING FROM CANADIAN INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY The Official Languages Commission has also sought funding from the CIDA the Canadian aid agency to carry out a Need Based Assessment Across Selected State Institutions in 9 provinces in Sri Lanka. RECOMMENDATION OF THE COMMISSION A Memorandum of Recommendation 2006 of the commission is ready for submission to His Excellency the President Mahinda Rajapaksha. A copy of the Memorandum is annexed hereto. As recommended by the Commission Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration has taken steps to issue circulars with concurrence of the Official Languages Commission regarding the increase of payment of incentives to Public Servants who acquire proficiency in the second official languages and give preference at promotions or elevate to higher positions by creating new categories of cadre for those who gain proficiency at levels II and III of both the second languages so that the Government will be able to Implement the Official Languages Policy more effectively. - 14 -
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