Tamil learning is must for students, says government

The government on Thursday asserted that there could not be any compromise on ensuring that Tamil is learnt compulsorily in schools in the State.

Participating in a debate on the demand for grants for the School Education Department, Congress MLA from Hosur K. Gopinath said while the Tamil Learning Act was passed in 2006, appointment of teachers to teach Tamil was not done in many minority-language schools. “Since the students haven’t read even the basics, how they can be expected to write Class X examination next year.”

The first batch of students since the Act came into force would be writing the Tamil examination in Class X for the first time in 2015-2016.

In his reply, School Education Minister K.C. Veeramani said after the government headed by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa formed, required appointments of Tamil teachers began in 2012-2013. However, the previous DMK regime, which passed the legislation in 2006, failed to follow up with appointing teachers.

The Congress was very much an ally of the DMK when the Act was passed and the government survived on the former’s support, he said.

When Mr. Gopinath urged the government to consider reducing the marks allotted to Tamil subject from 100 to 50 and give weightage to the native language subject which was now being kept out while calculating the final tally of a student, Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam intervened to say that at no point could the marks for Tamil be reduced.

The grievances of the member would be brought to the attention of the Chief Minister, he assured him.

Later, in the day, M. H. Jawahirullah (Manithaneya Makkal Katchi) defended the interests of students of linguistic minorities.