Kerala to press for Classical status for Malayalam

The International Dravidan Language Study Centre here has been asked to prepare necessary documents to support the request, Baby said while replying to a calling attention motion in the assembly.

An all party delegation led by Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and Opposition leader Oommen Chandy had a few months ago submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the matter, Baby said.

The Prime Minister had assured the delegation that Centre would favourably consider the request, he said.

The Government also plans to hold a 'Malayalam language convention', similar to the one conducted by Tamil Nadu government for Tamil language. The date of the convention will be decided later, he said.

It has also been decided to make teaching of Malayalam compulsory in all English medium schools in Kerala, he said, adding schools with Central syllabus have also been asked to include the language in their curriculum.