Lower and upper primary teachers in State schools need not have knowledge of Malayalam going by the State Public Service Commission’s syllabus for the lower and upper primary school teacher examination.
The PSC examinations to appoint lower and upper primary teachers to State Malayalam medium schools will be held on November 7 and 24.
The notification says that the question paper for the written test will be in Malayalam. However, while the candidates for the lower primary teacher post will be tested in areas such as social science, general knowledge, arithmetic, education, and child psychology, and so on, they will not be asked about Malayalam though they will be required to teach students in their mother tongue.
Malayalam is not included in the syllabus for the upper primary school teacher examination either, though English is mentioned.
The Aikya Malayala Prasthanam alleged that the PSC was continuing its neglect of Malayalam in employment examinations despite the Chief Minister’s assurances that question papers would be prepared in Malayalam for tests with graduation being the minimum qualification.
The PSC’s stance that the TTC syllabus was being followed by it in the examinations was misleading for the TTC course had given way to D.Ed. (Diploma in Education) initially and now D.El.Ed. (Diploma in Elementary Education), and Malayalam was part of the syllabus throughout, it said in a statement.
The organisation also alleged that earlier, the qualification for obtaining admission to these courses was limited to those who had studied Malayalam. However, that stipulation was removed two years ago, and now even if a candidate had not studied the language at the secondary or higher secondary level but had done so at the undergraduate, postgraduate, or teacher training course level, they were eligible for appointment as lower primary school teacher. However, this could be managed with perfunctory knowledge of Malayalam, it alleged. The PSC notification was to protect those who had completed the D.El.Ed. course recently.
Significantly, the PSC was not even testing the command of Malayalam of candidates who would be appointed to teach students in Malayalam through these examinations, it pointed out.
The new National Education Policy also emphasised teaching in mother tongue till Class V. However, the PSC’s negation of Malayalam in primary teacher postings was discriminatory and contravention of its assurances, Aikya Malayala Prasthanam convener R. Nandakumar said.