KOCHI: The government order passed last week which states that Malayalam be made compulsory in schools has taken the education sector by surprise. Many feel that an order on the same lines was given last year and hence a repetition of the same seems unwarranted. Meanwhile even if the new order looks at enhanced reforms, there is no clarity on what it is all about, for neither the officials in the education department nor the schools have been intimated about its specification.
“If the new order comes for this year, we may have to change the period allocation or have to recruit more teachers. Even changes have to be made in the syllabus. But have not been given any instructions till now so no steps can be taken on the same,” said the deputy director of education M D Murali.Meanwhile schools are soon to re-open and some of them have
already started with their classes.
Many schools, especially the CBSE/ICSE feel that the order simply asking compulsory Malayalam, lacks clarity. “There is no clarity on what the government means by compulsory Malayalam. Should it be taught as a second language or third language? Till which class is it compulsory? If it is only about Malayalam being available in schools, the CBSE already stipulates that regional language be taught compulsorily to all students till eighth grade. But if the current order intends the language be made compulsory in all classes then it will become complicated. For instance, if a student from a different state comes to a school in Kerala in his tenth grade, mastering the language in one year to appear for the boards will be a big problem. The whole point of a unified national level system CBSE or ICSE is for students moving to different parts of the country to be able to continue their education at ease. That would be defeated if there is a blanket order on making it compulsory across all grades,” said T P M Ibrahim Khan, president of the Kerala CBSE School Management Association.
Another key issue that is being raised is the wording in the reports that have come up on the order, according to which Malayalam would be made the compulsory ‘first language’. Since most of the schools have English as the first language, this wording has raised several eyebrows as it would be akin to changing English medium schools to Malayalam.
However many schools seem to have taken their own course of action after the government failed to provide any guidelines.“If there has to be a change, it must be a step-by-step process. If Malayalam has to be made compulsory in the higher classes it needs to be done in stages. We have already started Beginner’s Course in Malayalam for students completely new to the language. For the others the existing Malayalam classes are available,” said Lakshmy Narayanan, principal, Global Public School.