For R. Nihal, who moved to Chennai city from the U.S. this year, educating his son Rohak has become a problem.
In the recent days, since the start of term for the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) board, his son has had to enrol for Tamil tuition to be able to cope.
For many parents in Chennai city, the new rule making Tamil compulsory even in CBSE schools poses a major challenge. The worst affected is the migrant population that comes to Chennai from other States, or even countries, say principals.
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“My wife and I do not speak a word of Tamil, but my son is now forced to study the language. If I was planning to live here, it would have been fine. But, I will be moving out of the city in a year or two. Even the teachers find it difficult to explain in Tamil to my son,” says Nihal, adding, he plans to shift his family to another city next year to ensure his son can study his mother tongue — Bengali.
After the order, many teachers too have been finding it difficult to cope. “Although I know Tamil well, I cannot explain the language in Hindi. If I try in English, the children find it very difficult,” says a teacher from a CBSE school in Adyar.
School principals, too, feel the move to make Tamil a compulsory second language could be detrimental in the long run.
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“Our school gets a number of international students, and French is usually their second language. We have even allowed some students to study Russian, since it is their mother tongue,” says the principal of a school in Nungambakkam.
Some schools have tried to bridge the gap by introducing two second languages in class I. “We had a meeting with parents and decided to have four classes each of Tamil and Hindi from class I,” says Abdul Rahim K.M., principal of Sindhi Model School.
For around 60 per cent of the children in the school, Hindi is their mother tongue. The school has had to reduce the number of physical education classes in the week to accommodate the additional language class.
Gautham Vaid, chairman of Guru Shree Shantivijai Jain Vidyalaya, says the main problem is for migrant children, and also children who come in from other boards.
His school introduced Tamil and Hindi as second languages for classes I to X, but children from other boards, who are not used to studying two main languages, will have an issue, he says.
Educationists say, insisting on Tamil as second language for all children is against National Curriculum Framework guidelines.
G. Balasubramanian, former director (academics), CBSE, says, “Choice of mother tongue is vital for every child, and all children should be given the option of choosing their mother tongue as second language.”
Teachers too find it difficult to cope with the new rule making Tamil compulsory