The Madras High Court on Monday granted time till December 6 to the State government to take a call on introducing spoken English classes in all Tamil medium government schools in the State. The court opined that such classes would be certainly of great help in improving the communication skills of students. A Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and P. Rajamanickam made the observations while hearing a public interest litigation petition filed by former legislator M. Appavu (now in DMK).
During the course of hearing, the senior judge in the Bench asked how the petitioner belonging to the principal opposition party in the State had filed such a case when it was their party which was opposed to imposition of Hindi and English.
The judge said: “It is possibly because his (petitioner’s) personal stand is different as that of the party’s stand.” He recalled how several political parties in the State had opposed even the introduction of English medium sections in Tamil medium government schools in the State.
As per the education policy in the State, Tamil was taught as first language and English as second language from Class 2 to 12 in Tamil medium government schools. Nevertheless, the students who pass out meritoriously from these schools struggle hard to communicate in English and consequently find it difficult to pursue professional courses.
That was not the case with students of private schools, the petitioner said and insisted on introducing spoken English as a separate subject in all Tamil medium schools.
