Tamil should be made compulsory in all schools, says Ramadoss

“At the time when we speak about the pride of Tamil, Tamil culture and Tamil civilisation, we are not able achieve the simple task of making Tamil compulsory in all the schools,” said Ramadoss in a statement on Sunday.

In contrast, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa recently announced that Kannada would be made compulsory in all the schools from Class 1 to 10, Ramadoss pointed out, adding that an Act was already adopted by that government to give effect to the announcement.

Similarly, Ramadoss pointed out, Malayalam and Telugu were made compulsory in all the schools in Kerala and Telangana respectively in 2018. In the case of Andhra Pradesh, Telugu was made compulsory in 2013-14 itself, while Bengali has been compulsory in West Bengal since 2017.

Though an Act was passed in Tamil Nadu to make Tamil compulsory even before other States, no effort was made in the direction. This, he alleged, was an injustice to Tamil language. At present, Tamil is being taught merely as a single language till graduation. Though the Act to make Tamil compulsory till Class 10 was passed in 2006, the Madras High Court granted exemption to select schools from implementing the it.

The State government should file an appeal against the Madras High Court verdict, and should take steps to make Tamil compulsory in all the schools till Class 10, demanded Ramadoss.