Thiruvananthapuram: With Kerala Governor P. Sathasivam signing the ordinance making Malayalam compulsory in schools till Class X, students can now freely talk in Malayalam on campuses. It prohibits punishment for speaking in Malayalam at schools across the state. The ordinance also has provisions for cancelling the NOC of schools refusing to teach Malayalam. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan while briefing his cabinet decisions on Tuesday said the headmasters would have to pay a penalty of Rs 5,000 if any school refuses to teach Malayalam.
The ministry took the decision after it was brought to the notice that Malayalam was not being taught in some schools. The cabinet approved the ordinance at its meeting Monday morning, and the government signed it late evening. Though the ordinance applied to all government, aided and self-financing schools, including those of CBSE and ICSE streams, Malayalam is not compulsory for students from other states and foreigners. The decision would not apply to linguistic minorities also.
The ordinance prohibits schools using signboards, regulations or propaganda saying that only a particular language will have to be spoken on the campus. Last week, the cabinet planned to enact a law to make it mandatory for all schools to teach Malayalam till higher secondary classes. However, it was later decided to make it compulsory only till standard X. The high court had quashed the government order in 2012 pointing out that students from other states were also studying in ICSE and CBSE schools. The decision to make it into law was to overcome the legal hurdles cited by some CBSE school managements whenever the government insisted the same.
