The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court here on Monday took up for hearing a petition seeking clarification from the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas on the medium of instruction in the schools in Puducherry and Karaikal.
Venkateshwaran, Principal of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Puducherry, representing the school, clarified before a division bench of Justices K.K. Sasidharan and G.R. Swaminathan that the medium of instruction for classes 6 to 8 was Tamil and for classes 9 and 10, Tamil was a compulsory subject.
He also clarified that for classes 11 and 12 Tamil was an additional subject as was the case with Navodaya Vidyalayas which followed regional languages in the respective States.
The petition was filed by Kumari Mahasabha, Nagercoil, stating that Tamil was not implemented as the medium of instruction in Navodaya schools in Puducherry and Karaikal.
Section 3 of the Tamil Nadu Tamil Learning Act, 2006, makes it mandatory for all schools to make Tamil a compulsory subject.
The Principal further stated that there was a misconception that Hindi was the medium of instruction in Navodaya Vidyalayas, which was not true. Since the school was set up in rural areas to benefit rural children, the medium of instruction was the regional language. He said that Madurai Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao was a student of Navodaya Vidyalaya, Guntur.
The matter was posted for final orders on Monday.