Tamil students' language skills below par - Education Secretary

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 June 2003, 01:57 GMT]
Two-day workshop for the Assistant Directors of Education (Tamil) in the twenty-one Tamil medium education zones in the northeast province organized by the NE Provincial Education Ministry in Trincomalee concluded Wednesday evening. The main objective of the workshop was to instill in the minds of the assistant directors who are in charge of teaching Tamil language in their respective zones the critical necessity of ensuring the development of Tamil language skills of Tamil medium students, sources said.

Inaugurating the two day workshop on Tuesday at the Human Resources Development Centre at Thulasipuram in Trincomalee NE Provincial Education Ministry Secretary Mr.R.Thiagalingam said although eighty five percent of Tamil medium students in the northeast obtain passes in Tamil language the language skill of individual student has been found very poor. Most of the Tamil medium students who pass GCE OL and AL examinations are found unable to write an article or even a letter without help from others, sources said.

The time has come for the Assistant Directors of Education to double their efforts by holding seminars to teachers who teach Tamil language and to formulate a scheme to overcome this problem, stressed Provincial Education Ministry Secretary Mr.Thiagalingam.

Provincial Director of Education Mr.S.Mahalingam said compared to other countries in the world, the standard of education in Sri Lanka has gone down and in the northeast province it has gone down further. To raise the language skill among Tamil students, education authorities should take immediate steps to introduce reading habit among students.

The Assistant Director of Education who is in charge of Tamil language development in the Provincial Ministry of Education, Assistant Director of Education Ms M.Selvin and Deputy Director of Education Ms S.Vethanayagam also spoke.