Gumla: A school in Jharkhand is to become the first recognized educational institution in the world to teach in the medium of Kurux, a tribal language.
“Loordippa Kurux School, Bhagitoli in Gumla district of Jharkhand will soon be officially recognized by the Jharkhand state. The good news was revealed after a successful school Inspection of the school by the government official,” says school’s founder director Dr Zephyrinus Baxla.
“If so,” Dr Baxla proudly says, “Loordippa will be the first recognized Kurux school in the world.”
“There should be 1,500 Kuruxar students in this school and not the present strength of 600,” said the Inspector of Schools impressed by the education given to Kuruxar adivasis at Loordippa school.
Loordippa School was begun in 2000 by Salesian Fr. (Dr.) Zephyrinus Baxla close to his native village, right in the interior of Jharkhand bordering Chhattisgarh.
“I began this school exclusively of, by and for, the Kurux (Oraon) Adivasis in a small hut with 15 students and one teacher. Today by God’s grace and support of well wishers this has grown to have the capacity to accommodate easily 1,500 students,” Fr. Baxla said.
To bring up this exclusively Adivasi school to this stage Dr Baxla faced untold amount of resistance and opposition especially from religious quarters.
By teaching Kurux in the new script called ‘Tolong Siki’ invented by Dr. Narayan Oraon and having it recognized by the Jharkhand government, Dr Baxla was accused of leading the Kurux society not forward but backward.
“How can this be?” asks Fr Baxla “When my people start to learn to read, write and think in their own mother tongue am I leading them backward?”
“If six million Jews could gather after 2,000 years of dispersal and, reincarnate the Hebrew language, why can’t this be done by the 8 million or so Kuruxars to have their own language and culture?”argues Dr Baxla a Scripture professor who spent six months in Jerusalem as a Bible Scholar.
Again, this year 7th successful batch of class X students who are able to speak English reasonably well, have passed out of Loordippa.
Students in Loordippa take English as first language besides Kurux and Hindi.
Children are taught in Kurux up to class 4 after which English is introduced from class 5. It is seen that a Loordippa student stands out far above students of all Hindi Medium Schools run by the Church and Government in the area, in handling English language.
“Obviously this gives them advantage over Hindi Medium students for college studies, and for job opportunities,” says Dr Baxla who was founder editor of Kurux magazine “Garaia Guiith.”
The Jharkhand Government has recognized Kurux as an official language of the State and has ruled that a Kurux tribal will be eligible for Government jobs only if he/she can speak, read and write Kurux.
Taking the cue from Loordippa school, the Gossner Lutheran church inaugurated a Kurux school in Gumla, Jharkhand last week which could probably be the second Kurux school in the world.
At the inaugural function, a class 5 student of Loordippa school Master Mohit Kujur, spoke to the august audience both in Kurux and English, stressing the importance of learning Kurux. Incidentally Mohit hails from Kisko-the the same village as Mr Eloi Baxla, a scientist at NASA, USA. Eloi had won the All India Junior Science Quiz in 2009 and was eventually employed at the NASA.
It is reported that Jharkhand Government will soon have a separate Kurux Adivasi Council, with its own building and autonomous administrative structure.
Over past 30 years, Dr Baxla who is spearheading Kurux Revival Movement (KRM) has been showered with numerous awards by the media, NGOs and Adivasi Councils.
Plans are afoot to introduce classes 11 and 12 next year to offer higher education at Loordippa school.
Recently KRM has joined hands with SRM (Spiritual Revival Movement) Bangalore to initiate various programs to train Kuruxar Youth leaders.
KRM, supported by the Jharkhand Govt. is at a last ditch effort to save the culture, language and traditions of Kuruxar Adivasis, feels Dr Baxla and it appears he is succeeding.