CHENNAI: Merging of higher secondary language papers will limit students’ exposure to Tamil, says P Rathnasabapathy, president of Tamizhaga Institute of Educational Research and Advancement.
Speaking at a round-table discussion on the topic on Saturday, he said that languages are the only subjects in schools that helped students build a moral code and creativity. “Language papers, particularly Tamil, have a lot of literature and therefore stories that build children’s personality. By reducing the time allotted for such subjects, the State is essentially taking off their time to introspect on values,” he said.
“There have been two papers for Tamil since time immemorial. Every time this discussion came up in the past, educationalists always favoured the presence of two over one paper as it inculcated not only the language, but moral codes and culture belonging to Tamil Nadu. They help in creativity and speaking skills.This would increase stress on students as they have to study entire paper for just one paper.
“The government brought down two exam papers for English and Language to one stating that it will reduce the stress on students. But students will now have to study a vast syllabus for just one paper. This would only increase their stress further and they will not concentrate on language,”he said.
Students will study language papers only for the sake of exams and will not take the effort to understand the nuances, said M Rajendran, a former Vice Chancellor of Tamil University, Thanjavur.