Urdu linguistic minority students have requested the State Government to grant exemption from learning Tamil as a compulsory language.
Members of Urdu Protection Committee Tamil Nadu Trust from Vaniyambadi met Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and submitted a memorandum in this regard on Thursday.
President of the association, K. Nasrullah, said that they wanted the State government to retain the rule that existed until 2006, which allowed exemption for Urdu-speaking students from learning Tamil as language.
He said that prior to 2006 the lingustic minority students of Tamil Nadu studying from Class I to X were allowed to study Urdu, their mother tongue. However, the Tamil Nadu Tamil Learning Act 2006 had made Tamil as a compulsory subject, and the study of Urdu was made optional, which caused hardships for thousands of students, Mr. Nasrullah said.
“We have been pursuing this issue with the State Education Department for the past eight years and without any results, he said.
He recalled that some of the minorities went to court and legal remedy was sought for the minority students in 2016 and 2018. “In August 2019, the Madras High Court granted exemption for three years for the students from writing Tamil language paper in SSLC Examinations up to March-April 2022. We submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister seeking a permanent exemption,” Mr. Nasrullah said.
