JOIN USSSLC students directed to appear for exam from this year
The SSLC students of Kannada schools in Talawadi, bordering Tamil Nadu, are in a fix with the Jayalalitha government making pass in Tamil mandatory in the SSLC examination.
Talawadi firka has 28 Kannada medium primary schools, eight middle schools and six high schools including two private ones. All the schools taken together have a strength of about 5,000 students. More than 500 children are studying for SSLC in these schools for the present academic year 2015-16. None of these children has studied Tamil Nadu from the primary level.
Tamil Nadu has made Tamil mandatory in school education in 2006. Accordingly, students from class 1 to 10 should learn Tamil as first language compulsorily. English could be learnt as a second language. The government had ordered to teach Tamil as first language from elementary level in Kannada medium schools too. However, Tamil teachers are being appointed to these schools only from the past two years.
The recent order of the new government in Tamil Nadu has put the future of SSLC students at stake. These students have not studied Tamil since primary school and it would be highly impossible for them to learn the language from the basic level at class 10. The parents of these children are also in a dilemma over continuing the education of their children in Talawadi schools.
“Our children have studied in Kannada medium from class 1 to class 9. It is difficult for them to learn Tamil - from alphabet - and pass the examination in SSLC. Hence, we are admitting our wards to the schools in Chamarajanagar,” a parent said.
Several parents have already admitted their children to privated schools in Chamarajanagar.
The problem
About 500 students study SSLC at Kannada medium schools in Talawadi.
Tamil made mandatory for these students from 2015-16.
They have not studied the language in elementary classes
Parents shift their wards to private schools in Chamarajanagar