up both by the state government and the Baptist missions are found in all towns of the district. As yet there is no college in this district, the well-to-do Semas send their children to Shillong (Meghalaya) for collegiate eduction; others send their children either to Mokokchung (Ao area) or to Kohima, the state capital. Both these places have arts and science colleges. North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, has a campus at Kohima. Though the university was set up in 1974, unfortunately no course has yet been started in the Kohima campus.

The Department of Education is the first subject planned to be introduced in this campus. The present practice is to depute at the expense of the State Government, the untrained teachers from all parts of Nagaland to different colleges in Assam for obtaining a Bachalor’s degree in Education.

The State Government has formed literature committees for each of the languages recognised by the State. The ten-man Sema literature comittee with Shri Hokishe Sema, the then Chief Minister of Nagaland, as chairman was constituted by the Governor of Nagaland on August 10, 1971. The other members include Sri Shikhu Sema, the then speaker of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly, Sri Avito Kiibami, Zunheboto, the then general secretary, NNO, Shri I. Lozhevi Sema, the Sema language officer at the Directorate of Education, Kohima. The language officers at the Directorate of Education are the ex-officio secretaries of the Literature Committees. Only when the Directorate of Education does not have a language officer, another person is nominated as a secretary of the Literature Committees. Prior approval of the Literature Committees is required for any government publication in the respective language. The Sema literature committee is an active and vigorous committee devoted for the development of the Sema language. The Sema literature committee meets regularly for discussing the contents of the text books and other materials brought out by the Directorate of Education, Kohima. This writer had the privilege of acquainting with most of the members of the Sema literature committee and most of the informants from whom the Sema language data were collected are members of the Sema literature committee. He was officially invited to participate in a meeting specifically convened to discuss the script modification suggested in the Sema Phonetic Reader (Sreedhar : 1976). It is quite gratifying to note that after two days of deliberations, the committee accepted most of the suggestions made in the Sema Phonetic Reader. And according to the resolution passed in that meeting, all future publications in Sema would be in the modified script.

The text book production unit of the Directorate of Education Kohima which has been entrusted with the responsibility of producing language and subject matter text books in different Naga languages has produced the following text books in Sema.

(i)The Sema language text book up to Class ten. In addition, the translated version of Pilgrim's Progress, Sema folklore and poems for use in Class 9 and 10 were also produced.

(ii)Arithmetic, Science, Social Studies and Moral Science in Sema for Classes upto four.

The Directorate of Education Nagaland has prepared textbooks in various other Naga languages too. While the Sema language text books are used upto Class ten in all schools in the Zunheboto district, the LP schools in the Zunheboto district having Sema medium also use the subject matter books written in Sema. The Sema children living outside the Zunheboto district have no facilities to learn through the Sema medium, or even Sema language as a subject. This is true of other Naga communities like Ao, Angami etc. where children learn through their respective mothertongues only within their respective districts. The Nagaland Board of Secondary Education, has recognized only Ao and Angami, among the Naga languages, as a subject for examination at the SSC examination. Apart from the text books produced by the Directorate of Education. Kohima and the Bible translation in Sema, there is hardly any written literature available in Sema. The only English-Sema dictionary in Roman script is that of Avito-Kibami, Zunheboto, published sometime in 1965. Hutton (1921) has a section on Sema-English vocabulary and Pawsey (1931) has also Sema-English lexicon. The Nagaland Bhasha Parishad has published in Hn Hindi a Sema grammar and English-Sema-Hindi dictionary. The works apart from being very scanty, the grammar was written within the frame work of Sanskrit grammar. The Sema language has a rich oral literature. In Sema villages, even today men and women, boys and girls assemble in the evenings to sing in chorus, the Sema folksongs.