No MoE circulars in Tamil this year: CTU
View(s):The Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) last week charged that the Ministry of Education (MoE), from the beginning of this year, failed to issue circulars in Tamil Language, to schools. CTU Gen.Sec. Joseph Stalin said the Govt’s omission to translate the circulars into Tamil is causing immense problems to teachers and principals serving among the Tamil speaking community.
He said that, due to the lack of circulars in Tamil, several communiques, policy changes and rules on policy or procedural matters have not been communicated to teachers in Tamil medium schools. He said a complaint to that affect was made to the MoE Secretary last year for the same reason. “It was resolved then, but again they have reverted to the same practice,” he said.
Further, the MoE has ceased to issue any form of circulars to schools from July 2017, which he said is inconveniencing the school staff, as there was no way to know the changes in the MoE’s procedure and policy pertaining to issues. “Even to know about our Study Leave and Timetable, we have to go to the relevant Ministry divisions to obtain the information,” he said.
Sri Lanka’s Language policy requires that both Sinhala and Tamil Languages be treated as official and National Languages, and that, all correspondence from Govt depts are published in the 2 languages. - CC