Parties in Tamil Nadu including the DMK Saturday strongly opposed the three language formula's continuation proposed in the draft National Education Policy alleging it was tantamount to "thrusting" Hindi and wanted it junked.
The Tamil Nadu government said it would continue with the two-language formula, seeking to cool frayed tempers.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram in a series of tweets in Tamil said: "what is the meaning of three language formula in schools? The meaning is they will make Hindi a compulsory subject..."
In another tweet, he said "If Hindi language is a compulsory subject its import is imposition of Hindi."
Education Minister K A Sengottaiyan told Puthiya Thalaimurai Tamil news channel: "There will be no deviation from the two-language formula followed in Tamil Nadu. Only Tamil and English will continue to be taught in our State."
"...students who wish to change one of the three languages they are studying may do so in Grade 6, so long as the study of three languages by students in the Hindi-speaking states would continue to include Hindi and English and one of the modern Indian languages from other parts of India, ... while the study of languages by students in the non-Hindi-speaking states would include the regional language, Hindi and English."
The draft policy said India also has "an extremely rich literature in other classical languages, including classical Tamil, as well as classical Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Odia, in addition to Pali, Persian, and Prakrit; these classical languages and their literatures too must be preserved for their richness and for the pleasure and enrichment of posterity."
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