National Languages Division conducts a series of Language Planning Review Meetings across the Island
In Q1 of 2022, the National Languages Division of the Ministry of Public Services, Provincial Councils and Local Government, in collaboration with NLEAP hosted 6 workshops across the island to review the Language Plans developed by Government Institutions. Conducted in Kilinochchi, Trincomalee, Nuwara Eliya, Kandy, Galle and Puttalam, these single day review sessions are a follow up on the Technical Training Workshops in Language Planning that were conducted for 68 selected Government Institutions over the last quarter of 2021.
The reviews provided the selected Institutions a forum to share their draft Language Plans with the NLD team as well as to discuss some of the challenges faced in developing the Language Plans. The Language Planning facilitation programme is a critical step in developing key sub-national institutions island-wide, as ‘model institutions’ in the development and implementation of Language Plans. Improving the capacity of key Government Institutions to deliver public services in both official languages (Sinhala and Tamil) at national and provincial levels is an integral component of the Strategy Framework for the Implementation of Official Languages Policy (SFI OLP) that was approved by the Ministry in the recent past. Both NLD and NLEAP were encouraged by the commitment and involvement demonstrated by the selected institutions in developing their Language Plans.
