30 year dream of Tamil scholars and Tamil activists .... Ramadas in pain ....!

Ramadass stressed that the Tamil Nadu government should pass a law to make Tamil a compulsory language of instruction until the final class of Tamil schools in the first session of the legislature.

In a statement issued by PAMAC founder Ramdas, the need for emphasis on the Tamil language, race and territory in Tamil Nadu has arisen. Its creative purpose is to be welcomed. More important than this is the enactment of a law to make Tamil a compulsory language of instruction up to the final class of school to help prevent Tamils ​​from losing their identities.

It has been the dream of Tamil scholars and Tamil activists for 30 years to make Tamil the language of instruction in Tamil Nadu. But, this dream alone is moving away like a horizon without a hitch. It is an undeniable fact that no government has wholeheartedly taken constructive steps to make Tamil the language of instruction.

Until the crisis came into effect, there were only 29 English language schools in Tamil Nadu under the control of the University of Chennai and Kamarasar University. It was only after that that English medium schools were started, like a plague, to the extent that the Matriculation Schools started as a drive. As a result, Tamil gradually began to disappear from the status of a language of instruction in the early 1990s.

102 Tamils ​​have been on a hunger strike in Chennai Valluvar Kottam since April 25, 1999, demanding that Tamil be declared the language of instruction in all schools, at least up to the 8th standard, as it could lead to culturally impaired students, starting with the fact that Tamil is not the language of instruction. The then DMK government, which had promised to accept these demands, has since blown up the promises. Only the weak government of Tamil as the language of instruction from class one to class five was born on 19.11.1999. However, the government was also ruled invalid by the High Court in the next 5 months.

No attempt was made to make Tamil a compulsory language of instruction in the next 20 years. Instead, English medium schools were started to compete with the AIADMK and DMK regimes. That alone is not enough. During the DMK regime of 2006-11, the English medium education system was imposed on the schools of the Chennai Corporation. Subsequent AIADMK rule expanded the English medium education system in government schools throughout Tamil Nadu. When Tamil scholars struggled to make Tamil the language of instruction, English was the language of instruction in only 2122 schools in Tamil Nadu. However, today English is the language of instruction in more than fifty thousand schools.

Education is taught in the mother tongue in the most developed countries in the world, including China, Japan, Korea, France and Germany. Even in Tamil Nadu, Abdul Kalam, c. Scholars, including Subramanian, studied in the Tamil way. I also studied in a government school in the Tamil way. But now only in Tamil Nadu is the illusion that English medium education is the best and the mother tongue Tamil is being massacred. Governments that have ruled Tamil Nadu for more than 30 years are not worried about this.

The Chief Minister said yesterday that on the day Tamil was declared as the Classical Language, all the Eighth Schedule Languages, including Tamil, would be declared as National Official Languages. His sense of language is admirable. At the same time, if that feeling arises in his mind, the first step is to legislate immediately to declare Tamil or the mother tongue as a compulsory language of instruction in all schools in Tamil Nadu up to the final class of school. That is the urgent need of today for the development of Tamil.

The Government of Tamil Nadu should also ensure that the law making Tamil a compulsory language of instruction is approved by the High Court and the Supreme Court. Section 29 (f) of the Federal Right to Education Act states that "the mother tongue should be the language of instruction as far as practicable". The Government of Tamil Nadu should amend the Right to Education Act to remove only what is "practicable" in this text and seek the approval of the President.

The Government of Tamil Nadu should pass this amendment and the law to make Tamil a compulsory language of instruction up to the final class of Tamil schools in the first session of the Legislature. I urge the DMK government to prove its fondness for the Tamil language, ”he said.