February 12, 2013, 12:00 am
The introduction of sama�cheer kalvi (common syllabus for all schools) and compulsory Tamil in schools across the state have reportedly made several parents, especially from the linguistic minority, opt for CBSE rather than matriculation schools.
Parents have urged the government to let them decide their second language and revert to the old system. Enquiries with some top schools in the city also revealed that those who had studied Hindi, Sanskrit and French as their second language wanted to migrate from matriculation to CBSE stream.
The earlier state government had passed the Tamil Nadu Tamil Learning Act (2006) which had made the study of Tamil mandatory from Class I in a phased manner. The School Education department made Tamil mandatory for Classes VI to X from 2011-12 under thesamacheer kalvi framework.
�We tried convincing these parents that we could coach their kids in Tamil but they continued with their demand for a transfer certificate. samacheer kalvi has added fuel to the fire as several parents are citing the common syllabus as another reason for migrating to CBSE schools,� said an administrator of a top matriculation school in the city.
Several parents said it would be difficult for their kids who had studied Hindi from Class I, to switch to Tamil. �My son studies in Class VI now in a reputed matriculation school. We made him select Hindi as the second language in Class I and now if he has to study Tamil, he will find it difficult. Left with no other choice, we plan to shift him to a CBSE school,� said a parent.
It is a different story for those from the linguistic minority. Several children had studied either Telugu or Hindi or Sanskrit from their childhood but with the implementation of the rule from the last academic year, they had no choice but to opt for a CBSE school where they have the option to take up these languages.
