Madurai
Su. Venkatesan, Madurai MP, has appealed to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to allow students of CBSE schools in Oman to opt for Tamil as their second language.
Parents in Oman have complained that their children were denied the right to choose Tamil as their second language. Mr. Venkatesan said 22 schools run by the Embassy of India in Oman were refusing to allow the children to learn Tamil right from primary classes.
“It is surprising as similar schools in other Gulf countries offer Tamil as one of their language subjects. Why are the Indian schools in Oman alone are refusing to respect the right of the child to learn his/her mother tongue as declared by United Nations and in the Constitution of India,” he said.
Tamil is the mother tongue for around 10% of the 46,000 Indian students studying in Oman. Representatives of the parents of children there have taken several measures to convince the school managements to offer Tamil as one of the language subjects in Classes 1 to 10.
But all their attempts failed to yield any positive response from the school managements.
The MP said that since the Indian community in Oman was facing job uncertainty due to the pandemic situation, the parents feel that if the students got an opportunity to learn Tamil in Oman, it would be easier for them to adapt when they return home.
