Thiruvananthapuram: The state cabinet on Monday gave approval to an ordinance making Malayalam compulsory up to tenth standard in all schools from next academic year. Finance Minister Thomas Isaac presented the draft ordinance before the Cabinet in the absence of education minister C. Raveendranath who is abroad. The ordinance will come into force once it is approved by the Governor. There is provision to cancel the recognition of schools which do not teach Malayalam. The ordinance is applicable to government, aided, self financing, CBSE, ICSE schools.
The CBSE and ICSE schools which violate this law will not be allowed to function. The ordinance is also applicable to schools in the districts bordering the state where linguistic minorities reside. Though the last Cabinet had decided to bring an ordinance making Malayalam compulsory till higher secondary level, the government decided to implement till tenth standard in the first phase. There are provisions in the ordinance to prohibit schools from displaying boards against speaking Malayalam.
