The rich Indigenous Knowledge System (IKS) of Odisha, its language, cultural traditions and community practices need to be documented, researched and integrated into the mainstream education system, speakers said at a seminar organised by the World Odia Lecturers’ Group at Government DAV College, Koraput, on Sunday.
The seminar brought together Lecturers in Odia from different colleges of the state in addition to educationists to deliberate on Odisha’s indigenous knowledge, the role of Odia language in education and the need to strengthen the connection between students and their cultural roots.
Dr. Siddhartha Shankar Padhy, president of the World Odia Lecturers’ Group, said Odisha’s indigenous knowledge represents the accumulated experience and wisdom of generations and should not remain confined to folklore or isolated academic studies. “Our language, traditions, knowledge of nature, agriculture, art, music and community practices constitute an important knowledge system. These need to be studied scientifically and connected with contemporary education so that younger generations can understand their own cultural roots,” he said.
He also stressed the importance of strengthening Odia from the primary level. According to him, mother-tongue education provides children with a stronger foundation for understanding, expression and knowledge development. The declining institutional attention to Odia, compared with other languages and subjects , needs to be addressed through appropriate educational policies.
Ramesh Chandra Pradhan, vice-president of the group and retired professor, said the preservation of indigenous knowledge was closely linked with the preservation of language and education. “If children are disconnected from their mother tongue and their local knowledge traditions, they gradually lose an important part of their intellectual and cultural inheritance. Odia education must therefore begin strongly from the primary stage,” he said.
He also called for the appointment of dedicated Odia teachers in primary and secondary schools, pointing out that language teaching should not routinely be entrusted to teachers of unrelated subjects.
The seminar also highlighted the linguistic diversity of Odisha and the need to respect and connect regional and indigenous languages with mainstream Odia. Participants stressed that the state’s diverse traditions, including its Jagannath centred cultural heritage, folk practices, music and local knowledge, can become important resources for research and education.
