Puducherry: Tamil not a compulsory second language

Now students of Puducherry have a reason to cheer about. They can write the board examination by taking either French, Hindi or Sanskrit as second language along with Tamil.   

The Tamil Nadu government has permitted the Puducherry students the option of writing the Tamilnadu Board Examination by taking either French, Hindi or Sanskrit as second language along with Tamil, by  relaxing the rules for Puducherry students from compulsory Tamil as second language.

Stating this at the Children’s Day function, organized by the Department of School  Education on Wednesday, N Rangasamy thanked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for relaxing the norms and thereby giving the students an opportunity to write the exams in the language chosen by them.

With Puducherry having no Education Board of its own, the students here depend on Tamil Nadu Board and hence they have to take Tamil as second language.

Tamil Nadu government has made Tamil compulsory as second language through the Tamil Compulsory Learning Act in 2006.

In 2015, the first batch of students who come under the Act will be appearing for the Class 10 examination of Tamilnadu Education Board where the second language would be only Tamil.

However, Tamil Nadu  will have to shoulder an additional responsibility.

Despite the less number of students taking up French, Hindi and Sanskrit as second language,  they have to do the additional exercise of formulating syllabus, setting of question papers and correction of answer scripts and evaluation for the Puducherry students.

The opportunity for French learning has to be provided to students who wish to study French by honouring the “Treaty of Cessation”  signed between French and Indian governments at the time of merger of the territory with India, Rangasamy said.