'The Tamil Pandemic'

The Tamil country has recently celebrated the antiquity of the language of Tamil by organising the first World Classic Tamil Conference at Coimbatore. However the Tamil country is in the firm grip of an illness that is seeping into the blood veins and streams of all its inhabitants. It is an epidemic that has slowly built its nestle in the minds of them. It is the fad of the people of the land of 'High Tamil', which lured to it so many western scholars who came to the land to proselytize the inhabitants of 'Dravida Land' by trapping them with its charm and glory, to get their wards educated in English Medium schools.

What has so far remained an intention only in cities has now percolated down to fertile soils and dry land of the Tamil country. The mushrooming English medium matriculation schools do follow a well organised campaign to procure students to their premises. The well maneuvered fleet of vans that reaches the nook and cranny of the countryside of the land gives ample opportunity to the parents of the countryside to fulfil and materialise their dream of listening to the lisp of 'mom' and 'dad' from their wards. The disease has cut across all sections of the Tamil society by overpowering even the proletarians to educate their children in English Medium schools.

The pass percentage at the +2 level has been very high for quite some time. However it does not reflect on the quality of students who come out 'in flying colours'. Students who spend their entire early life in English medium schools do not show any mastery in the language of English. Neither are they proficient in their mother tongue 'Tamil'. The disease has had its effect in benumbing the faculty of mastering one's mother tongue, thus triggering a rupture in the faculty of comprehension. The students who study in English medium schools suffer from the same handicaps as the students who study in Tamil, in mastering the language of English. A lack in basic understanding of things and an inability to come out with creative sentences of their own are because of the shaky foundation in being familiar with their mother tongue. A recent feature on a television news programme showcased a government run primary school in a village in the district of Dindigul with only one student. The school became a point of attraction as the lonely student decided to obtain transfer certificate to move to an English medium school. There seems to be no cure to this disease as many are under the strong spell of the materialistic attraction that the language of English projects to subject them. A transition may be possible once these new generation learners have come out and found them quite odd in society and may look for some changeover in their outlook.