The Kerala Sastra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP) has urged the State government to take steps to include Malayalam as an optional language for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).
In a resolution at the ongoing 55th State meeting of the KSSP at Sulthan Bathery on Saturday, it said the aspirants in other States had an option to take the examination in their mother tongue, including Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Urdu, and Oriya apart from English.
Candidates in Kerala, especially those from rural areas, prefer to write the test in Malayalam, but such an option is not available now.
The number of rural candidates who pass the test is very low. The present mode of examination would help only students from financially sound families. Hence, the State government should put pressure on the Centre to grant permission to write the examination in all regional languages.
Moreover, the State government should include Malayalam as an optional medium of teaching in higher secondary schools.
The meeting elected T. Gangadharan as president; T.K. Meera Bai as general secretary; P. Juna and A. Shaji as vice presidents; K. Radhan, V. Manoj Kumar and G. Stanlin as secretaries; and P. Ramesh Kumar as treasurer. It also elected a 51-member executive committee.
The meeting will conclude on Sunday.
