Thiruvananthapuram: The state government will appoint a senior IAS officer to study the issues of Tamil and Kannada linguistic minorities protesting compulsory learning of Malayalam in schools. The decision was taken at the meeting of state-level Linguistic Minority Committee chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday. The state has a considerable number of the Tamil population in Idukki and Palakkad districts and Kannada in Kasaragod. The meeting asked the education department to allow them to write exams in their languages at Plus-Two level too instead of up to Class 10 currently and provide question papers in their language too.
In response to complaints by MLAs attended the meeting Mr Vijayan assured them that their difficulties to obtain caste certificates from revenue department would be sorted out. He asserted that the Malayalam Languages Act that made it mandatory in all the schools would be implemented only by protecting their interests. There will be no change in the medium of instruction, though they will have to learn Malayalam as a second language from Class 1 this year onwards.
He made it clear that students now studying at higher classes will not have to study Malayalam. “Since they are born and brought up in Kerala, learning Malayalam would be in the interest of their future,” he said. The chief minister asked offices concerned to appoint an officer who knows the minority language at the Taluk offices functioning in linguistic minority areas. Besides senior officials, electricity minister M. M. Mani, MLAs S. Rajendran, K. Krishnan Kutty, K. Kunhiraman and N. A. Nellikkunnu, also attended the meeting.
