First batch to write compulsory Tamil paper

After implementation of the Tamil Language Learning Act 2006.

After the implementation of the Tamil Language Learning Act 2006, the students who received their SSLC results on Wednesday were the first batch to write the compulsory Tamil paper across the State.

However, the High Court had directed the State government earlier this year to exempt over 7,000 Class 10 students from writing the Tamil language paper in the 2015-16 academic year. Many of these students had been studying other languages such as Telugu, Malayalam and French.

Relieved lot

SSLC students of Kanniyakumari district, whose mother tongue is Malayalam, were a relieved lot this year as 384 students across 26 schools run for the benefit of linguistic minorities were allowed to write the exam in their mother tongue. Of these students, 377 passed the exam.

However, in a few schools where the Act had been implemented in 2006 or later, the faculty members and management expressed displeasure over the marks.

P.V. Subbalakshmi, Principal of Agarwal Vidyalaya, said that with a majority of students in the school having Hindi as their mother tongue, many found it hard to cope despite the rule being implemented in the school from 2006 where the students were taught the language from LKG.

“Based on their performance during the half-yearly and revision examinations, we gave them extra coaching and ensured that they managed to score good marks in the board exams,” she said.

A principal from a school in Chennai, on the condition of anonymity, said that while the students who had received their SSLC results on Wednesday had been asked to switch over and learn Tamil from Class 6, they had struggled to score good marks.

Uncertainty

A cloud of uncertainty, however, hangs over the implementation of the Act as many are asking for the one year exemption to be extended for a few more years so that it does not affect students who are taking up the SSLC over the next few years from schools where it has not yet been implemented.

“We are expecting an exemption at least for the next five years so that the students in classes five and six will not have to start studying Tamil abruptly and write their SSLC in a subject they are unprepared for,” said CMK Reddy, Chairman of the Linguistic Minorities Commission.

In 2006, by enacting the Tamil Nadu Tamil Learning Act, the State government had made it mandatory that Tamil language must be taught as a subject in standards I to X in all the schools.

Representatives of institutions for linguistic minorities and such institutions had, however, said that the rules for the implementation for the act were not properly framed till about 6 years later which had meant that many schools hadn’t begun to teach the subject.

(With inputs from R. Arivanantham)