The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore, has got a regular director after five years with the government appointing linguist Shailendra Mohan.

Prof. Mohan is currently associated with the department of linguistics, Deccan College, Pune. He has been appointed as CIIL director for a period of three years or until further orders, whichever is earlier, a government notification issued on Friday said.

Prof. Awadesh Kumar Mishra, the last regular CIIL director, retired in August 2016. Since then, an in-charge director had been helming the institution.

The director’s post had been advertised twice. Prof. Mohan was selected through an interview in December 2020. However, it took six months to finalise his appointment.

The CIIL, set up in 1969, trains schoolteachers in second languages, helps in research on Indian languages, maps and revitalises minor languages and also translates books written in different Indian languages.

What has further hobbled the CIIL’s functioning has been the education ministry’s inordinate delay in clearing the proposed revision of recruitment rules for the autonomous institution. The CIIL had submitted the proposal in 2016.

Without a regular director and in the absence of revised recruitment rules, the CIIL has not been able to fill up nearly 100 faculty positions. This has affected the institution’s key functions such as mapping of minor languages and recording and revitalising their vocabulary and grammar.

“Work has been going on at the usual speed. Had a regular director been appointed and the vacant posts filled up, the activities could have gathered pace,” a CIIL official said.

The ministry last year prepared the National Education Policy that advocates teaching of schoolchildren in the mother tongue up to Class V. The CIIL has been verbally sounded out on mapping all the mother tongues and preparing learning materials, sources said.

NCERT and NCTE

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has not had a regular director since November 15, 2020, when Prof. Hrushikesh Senapati’s term ended.

The education ministry has assigned to the NCERT several activities under the NEP, such as the preparation of a National Curriculum Framework and textbooks for school students.

“A regular director takes ownership of tasks and monitors and implements them. An in-charge director does not feel encouraged to take new initiatives,” an NCERT faculty member said.

Another institution that has not had a regular head is the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), which frames policies on teacher education and gives approval to teacher education institutions. Since 2015, bureaucrats, not academics, have been holding the post of NCTE chairperson.