The Tamil Nadu Information Commission has directed the Tamil University, Thanjavur, to translate into Tamil the Physics, Chemistry, History, Geography, Economics and Mathematics books published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in English and Hindi from 6th to 12th Standards.
If implemented, the order is expected to go a long way in benefiting students from Tamil medium appearing for the national competitive examinations like the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) and the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) for which question papers are based on NCERT syllabus.
Passing orders on a petition filed by R. Chander of Chennai, State Information Commissioner S. Muthuraj directed the varsity to translate the books of six subjects from 6th to 12th into Tamil and upload the content on its website under the provisions of Section 4 of the Right to Information Act. The Public Information Officer was asked to send a compliance report to the Secretary, Tamil Development Department, and Secretary, School Education Department, Chennai.
In his petition, Mr. Chander contended that most of the competitive examinations for admissions or recruitment conducted by the Centre were based on the NCERT syllabus of Physics, Chemistry, History, Geography, Economics, Mathematics subjects from 6th Standard to 12th Standard, for which books were available only in English and Hindi.
Translation errors
Students from Tamil Nadu who completed their school education with Tamil as a medium of instruction and aspiring to get into Central government jobs or educational institutions were finding it difficult to study NCERT books as they were not available in Tamil. Though most of these examinations were conducted in Tamil as well, students found it difficult to score owing to translation errors in question papers. He petitioned the Tamil University under the RTI Act to take steps for translating the NCERT books into Tamil. Since there was no reply from the Public Information Officer and the First Appellate Authority, he moved the Commission.
Appearing for the university, the PIO/Deputy Registrar stated that under Section 2(f) of the Act, information could be provided as available in the records and that there was no provision of translating the information and providing the translated version to the applicant.
After hearing both sides, Mr. Muthuraj and considering the larger interest of students who had Tamil as their medium of instruction at school, Mr Muthuraj said the Preamble of the Act authorised promotion of transparency and accountability of every public authority.
The main objective of the Tamil University’ Department of Translation was to translate Tamil literature into other languages and vice-versa. Hence, the Department of Translation was accountable to translating the NCERT books under the Act, Mr. Muthuraj said.
