Tamil schools receive circulars, official communications in Sinhala

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 May 2006, 14:08 GMT]
Tamil medium schools in Sri Lanka have been receiving circulars and other official documents from the Central Ministry of Education in Colombo in Sinhalese language only. No translation is provided because 99% of clerks in all eighteen branches of the Ministry of Education are Sinhalese, a senior ministry official said.

During the tenure of President Ms.Chandrika Kumaratunga who also acted as the Minister of Education, her secretary Dr.Ms.Tara de Mel agreed to set up a separate unit in the ministry to look into the needs of Tamil medium schools in the country but it did not materialize despite repeated requests by the Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union and other teacher trade unions. However circulars to all Tamil medium schools were sent in Tamil language, sources said.

Since the government headed by President Mahinda Rajapakse assumed last November, circulars are sent to Tamil medium schools in Sinhala only violating the general rule that such circulars should be sent in Tamil language. Hence heads of Tamil medium schools are spending money to get these circulars translated in Tamil, education sources said.

National level seminars and workshops organized by the Colombo Ministry of Education to teachers and heads of schools are held only in Sinhala and seldom is a translation of such proceedings given in Tamil language, an education official said.