Baghmara: The Meghalaya Koch Association (MKA) on Saturday requested Meghalaya government to include Koch language as the medium of instruction in the Lower and Upper Primary Schools in the Koch-dominated villages.
The MKA members on Saturday submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma during their 54th annual conference at Jatrakona in South Garo Hills and requested the state government to preserve and promote the Koch language in the state.
The MKA said the demand for inclusion of Koch as the medium of instruction is in line of the New Education Policy, which talks about students’ mother’s tongue to be the medium of instruction till Class VIII.
Later, Conrad K Sangma, while addressing the gathering at the conference assured the Koch community that the government will consider inclusion of the Koch language as the medium of instruction in the state.
The MKA memorandum also requested for financial grant from the Meghalaya Government to run career counseling centres in Koch villages in Meghalaya to make the young boys and girls ready for competitive exams.
Claiming that the Koch tribe is one of the most backward indigenous minority tribes of Meghalaya with an equally low literacy rate, the MKA said the career counseling centres will help the boys to be ready for recruitment by Army and the para-military forces.
The MKA also requested the Chief Minister to increase the reservation percentage of the indigenous minority tribes to at least 15 percent, to benefit the youngsters to get government jobs.
