Making language learning compulsory is an anachronism

The Tamil Nadu government’s decision to make Tamil learning compulsory for students of Class IX and X across the state irrespective of the Boards from the academic year 2024-25 was an expected step. State governments in the neighbouring states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana had gone along with similar moves, and Tamil Nadu had jumped on the bandwagon in 2015-16 itself.

The government order was passed based on the Tamil Language Learning Act 2006, wherein it said that Tamil would be compulsory for all students from Class 1 to Class 10. Implementation started in a phased manner from 2015-16 itself. Predictably the order was challenged in the courts. The Madras High Court refused to stay the order while the Supreme Court has on a yearly basis been exempting students of linguistic minorities from writing the Tamil exam in Class X.

Issues remain in the implementation. Presumably Tamil will be taught as an extra subject for those who have already taken another language as their language subject. Students will have to pass to qualify, but the exams are to be held separately and a separate certificate is to be issued. If Tamil is the selected second language of the student, then they write the Board exam anyways, and so will not be discomfited.

Read | TN CM welcomes Centre's decision to hold CAPF exams in state languages

Parent associations in several states have in the past highlighted the plight of those who are frequently transferred from one state to another, and the problems their children face in learning a new language starting in Class VIII or IX. They point out that this will put other students at an unfair advantage — but so far language chauvinism has held sway.

There is also the issue of getting enough Tamil teachers to fill the vacancies in private schools in various Boards.

Last year in Tamil Nadu, around 47,000 students out of the 900,000 students who took the Class X Board exams failed in Tamil. This year close to 50,000, Class XII students did not even turn up for the Tamil exam. While the government does its bit to promote the local language, students increasingly prefer English medium education, and often look upon the local language as a burden that must be borne for lack of a choice. While most parents are fine with getting their children to learn the local language in the lower classes, they often find the time spent on language learning in the higher classes as a distraction from the child’s focus on say, mathematics or science subjects.

The National Education Policy (NEP) also does not make learning the local state language mandatory. In fact, the NEP is silent on this issue. While the NEP bats for learning in the mother tongue in the lower classes, it remains equivocal about making any language compulsory.

The Tamil Nadu government had earlier made Tamil a compulsory paper and a pass in that paper a pre-requisite, to apply for state government jobs through the Tamil Nadu State Public Service Commission and other state government recruiting agencies.

For the ruling DMK, Tamil is an emotive issue and one that it has consistently used to good effect at the hustings. The anti-Hindi agitation of the Sixties was a movement that catapulted the DMK to greater public prominence, and the party has never hesitated to use the language card effectively to project itself as the saviour of the Tamil language. Implementation issues are hardly likely to get it to change course especially as there is a broad consensus on the issue between the party and the Opposition AIADMK which introduced this government order when it was in power. Also, Tamil Nadu is one of the few states that follows the two-language policy where there is no third language in its state board schools.

Will making Tamil compulsory for students of Class IX and X make Tamil Nadu a less desirable education destination? Extremely unlikely. Most students who shift states are those whose parents have transferrable jobs, and except for a small number of others who choose exclusive boarding schools in other states, most students choose schools in their hometown or the nearest city in their own state. With this being unlikely to change anytime soon, making Tamil compulsory is not going to have much of an impact on majority of students. Of course, it will put those students who are not natives of the state and the linguistic minorities at a disadvantage, and will greatly affect those who need to join higher classes in the state due to parental transfers.

Making any language compulsory learning is an anachronism in today’s age. Students must be given the freedom to choose. But in a hyper-politicised atmosphere where a language is deemed to be protected only by forcing people to learn it, Tamil Nadu’s politicians demonstrate that they are no different from the rest.

(Sumanth Raman is a Chennai-based television anchor and political analyst. Twitter: @sumanthraman.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.