Child panel sends Hindi Pocso video to TN, HMs & students at loss for words
COIMBATORE: When the headmaster of a government high school in Coimbatore district gathered around 50 Class 10 students in the hi-tech lab on Tuesday to show them awareness videos on the Pocso Act, he expected it to be an informative session. But the session turned out to be a damp squib and the students left the room laughing as all 16 YouTube videos he played were in Hindi instead of Tamil or English.
Headmasters have now requested the school education department to resend the links by translating the audio files from Hindi to Tamil with the help of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT).
According to sources, the school education department forwarded a circular on July 29 from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to all district Chief Educational Officers (CEOs), instructing headmasters to screen videos that spread awareness on the Pocso Act, 2012, before August 10. Links of 16 YouTube videos were also attached in the circular.
The department had just forwarded the NCPCR circular without checking the links and translating the videos, sources said. The NCPCR, too, instead of sending videos in regional languages or notifying the department to translate its audio before forwarding, simply sent out the circular.
‘Commission should’ve sent videos in Tamil’
The HM of a government school in Coimbatore told TNIE, “The PDF circular with 16 links was received last week. I made all arrangements to screen it on Tuesday evening and around 50 Class 10 students and a few teachers came in. I played it one by one but was disappointed to see that all the videos were in Hindi instead of Tamil. I stopped playing it and sent the students back to their classes.”
The HM added he thought showing videos was a good method to spread awareness about the Pocso Act. “But the NCPCR should have shared videos in regional languages or the school education department should have taken steps to translate it. This shows the lethargy of officials of both the departments,” he said.
Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam general secretary Ku Ramakrishnan said NCPCR should stop trying to impose Hindi on students of non-Hindi speaking states. “The state should write to the NCPCR asking them not to send videos in Hindi but in Tamil or English,” he said. A top official said the school education department forwarded the circular without noticing the videos. “We have taken steps to translate the audio to Tamil.”