Language of science

Let me, first of all congratulate Dr Gunadasa Amerasekera on the honour bestowed on him for the second time by a Sri Lankan university, namely the award of the DLitt degree. Dr Amarasekera is the only doctor who has attained the status of a reputed novelist and thinker.

The only other person I can think of is Dr Lucian de Zilva, who won the open Arts scholarship to the UK and changed course to study medicine more than a century ago. He was an obstetrician and a novelist.

Any educated person will agree with Dr. Amerasekera, wholeheartedly on the need for a holistic approach to education. That is an integrated kind of education where the learner is provided an education in a specialised field, supplemented by a learning process in a general field. This type of integrated education system has been in place in the US for many years.

This letter intends to highlight an anomaly that remains unresolved.

The first Prime Minister of India thought it fit to retain English as the medium of instructions for higher education. The state of Tamilnadu, which has a population of over 60 million people, speaking a well developed language as ancient as Sanskrit went along with the PM’s decision.

In our country, all students in the GCE A/L science stream are required to study in Sinhala and Tamil using newly minted local terms in biology and physical sciences, which the students will abandon with glee once they enter the University.

I have heard stories of how medical students request their teachers to use the English terms as they have to learn their science from text books, written in English. It is a waste of time and energy that these students have to learn new terms with Sanskrit roots and then jettison them once they enter university.

Except for continuing with terms used in hydraulic engineering and Ayurveda for which we have had the expertise from ancient times, coining user unfriendly new terms is a waste for a small nation of 22 million people.

Our garage hands use the English terms for car parts like gearbox, plug, carburetor, battery just as we use the same western terms for hydrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide instead of ‘jalakara, amlakara and angarikamla’––words I learnt more than half a century ago in a village school.

Leo Fernando,

Pitipana, Negombo