Teachers union deplores correspondence in Sinhala

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 July 2002, 18:08 GMT]
The Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union (CTTU) Tuesday criticised education officials for sending letters and circulars to persons working in the Northeast in the Sinhala language despite a pledge by Colombo not to do so. "The Minister of Human Resources Development, Education and Cultural Affairs directed the relevant officials in his ministry to correspond with Tamil medium schools in Tamil or English. But education officials still correspond only in the Sinhala language," said Mr.S.Thandauthapani, President of the CTTU.

He said,"I have received a letter written in the Sinhala language without any Tamil or English translation from the education ministry. This completely violates the minister's directive issued at the conference the latter had with the delegation of the CTTU on July 2. The Minister that day directed his additional secretary and other related officials to send Tamil or English language translation simultaneously with Sinhala letters. The minister had entrusted the responsibility to one of his additional secretaries. But we still receive letters only Sinhala".