Bhubaneswar: More than 200 Odia students studying at a Bangalore-based English medium school and their guardians were excited after the school decided to introduce Odia language as an optional subject in its syllabus from the next academic session.
Odia will be taught as an optional subject from Class I at Godwin Public School in Bangalore. Joy of the non-resident Odias living in Bangalore knew no bounds after hearing the news.
Godwin Public School is the first English Medium school from South Indian to include Odia language in its course structure.
"I am very happy as nearly 90 percent of Odias are residing outside State and our mother tongue is slowy dying out. Therefore, I will thank Kalinga Foundation and the Principal of Godwin Public School for taking this step," said a guardian Basanti Pradhan.
Godwin Public School Chairman Jagdish Kumar took the decision after being attracted to the language and culture of Odisha. He will be coming to Odisha on October 30 to meet School and Mass Education Minister Badri Narayan Patra and Skill Development and Technical Education Minister Usha Devi.
"I was impressed by the art, culture and language of Odisha people. So I thought of implementing the language of Odia, the mother tongue for the students of Odisha background in my institution," said Kumar.
"It will be my greatest pleasure to meet Badri Patra and Usha Devi and discuss with them," he added.