Deteriorating state of Tamil medium education

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 March 2000, 06:58 GMT]
"The Tamil medium education can be safeguarded only if full authority to administer educational affairs is given to the North-East officials, after finding a political solution to the ethnic conflict," said Mr.T.Mahasivam, Secretary of Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union (CTTU), at the weekly meeting of Trincomalee Rotary Club held on the 2nd of March.

Invited as a special guest speaker, Mr. Mahasivam spoke on the future of students studying in Tamil medium.

Mr.Mahasivam further said, "new improvements to the educational system the Government is currently implementing with funding from World Bank is slowly leading Tamil medium education in a destructive path.

"Text books are first written in Sinhala Language, centered on the social economic background of Sinhala-Buddhist culture, and then translated into Tamil by officials who are not proficient in Tamil. Mistakes that should never appear in school books are very common in text books published by the the present Government.

"Eventhough it is clear that the new educational system is destroying the Tamil medium education, the Tamil politicians are keeping silent unable to protest," Mr.Mahasivam further said in his speech.