Varsity develops mobile apps to learn Malayalam

Tech-savvy students can now learn Malayalam, the mother tongue of Keralites, through mobile applications and games.
With an aim tap the potential of technology to learn and teach Malayalam, the state-based Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University has brought out a string of applications to learn letters, words and basic sentences of the language.
The Tirur-based varsity has designed and developed the digital tools as part of its new action plan "Malayala padham" to make the learning of Malayalam easy and interesting.
K Jayakumar, Vice Chancellor of the university, said the apps are envisaged to help the learning of language easy for tech-savvy new generation children.

"The action plan was already launched by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on May 29 and the apps are now available for download," he told reporters here in a press meet.
With the help of the applications, learners can learn alphabets, words and sentence through computers, mobile phones and tabs after downloading it, he said.

The core objective of the initiative is to support the state government's move to make the learning of Malayalam compulsory in schools including CBSE ones, he said.
The 'Aksharakeli', the letter game, would help to learn letters and its pronunciation, while the 'Padakeli' would make learning of basic words in the language easy.

The 'School Dictionary' gives the meaning of almost all words which appear in the text book from Class 1 to 10.
The 'e-copy book' was envisaged to improve the handwriting of learners, he said.
According to Jayakumar, the apps would be specially beneficial for differently abled children to learn the basics of Malayalam.
Elaborating on the University's plans,he said discussions are on to make use the Information Technology enabled tools in the smart classrooms launched by IT@School under the state Education Department.
A programme to impart training for Malayalam teachers in government schools and a special package to teach Malayalam in the CBSE and ICSE schools was also also on the cards, he said.

A comprehensive on line programme to help students and teachers across the globe learn Malayalam would also be launched by the university soon, Jayakumar,said, adding that a fund of Rs 50 lakh was earmarked in the varsity budget to be spent for various projects in this financial year.