Tamil to be medium of teaching in TN schools

Beside, the Chief Minister said, the existing rule which bans admission of students from unrecognised schools in recognised schools would continue to be enforced, and the Government woulddisallow functioning of unrecognised nursery and primary schools.

However, Karunanidhi said, science would continue to be taught in English. Schools which defied the order would not be accorded recognition from the next academic year, he warned. He said Tamil would have to be taught as a subject up to the middle-school level in all the linguistic minority schools from next academic year onwards.

He informed that about 1,008 schools run by linguistic minorities did not teach Tamil as a subject at all. Tamil would be taught in addition to the mother tongue and English in these schools. The Government would provide Tamil teachers and talks would be held with renowned educationalists on how to teach Tamil in these institutions, he said.

Karunanidhi said though the Government’s decision would come into force from next academic year, the monitoring work would begin now.

To a question, he said, the DMK’s opposition to imposition of Hindi language would not change due to the new decision. The government’sorder would be applicable to those students who enrolled from next academic year onwards, and would not cover those already studying from LKG to eighth standard, he said. It would also not be applicable to schools recognised by the Central Board of School Education (CBSE). Students who had already opted for English as the medium of instruction would not be affected, he said.