By TCN Staff Reporter,
Kozhikode: The CBSE schools in the Lakshadweep Islands won’t any more allow its students to have Arabic as an optional language. The conspiracies from the part of a few bureaucrats within and out of educational department have resulted in the removal of the language from school curriculum. Earlier these students had the luxury of choosing their second language from Arabic and Malayalam, as part of the CBSE English medium syllabus.
Taking in to consideration the pathetic situation of people out there in the Islands, the bill passed by the parliament have listed the locals as Scheduled Tribes and it was since then that these ten islands were allocated with around fifty central schools under CBSE syllabus.
All ten of these Islands have hundred percentage Muslim populations and it is without their awareness the Language is now being taken off. Students always want to and have been choosing the language since times and the demand kept rising for the particular language.
These students were unable to attend their Madrasahs because of the difficulties in time scheduling, as their schools were often located in a different Island and it was tough to travel in between. In this way they were unable to receive their lessons in Arabic from the Madrasahs as well. The parents have started complaining that at present because of the negligence from the part of educational authorities towards Arabic language, their kids aren’t even able to recite Quran properly.
The educational board due to its blind hostility towards the language have even taken care to write a report in their file to CBSE, mentioning that the English medium schools in the region does not require the optional privilege of Arabic language. The file was undersigned by the Island administrator, an IAS officer acknowledged as the representative of the central government.
The people are no where in a state to protest for protecting the language. Such protests were once historical and successful in Kerala, when the Communist government in the state undertook harsh steps against the Arabic language. But at present in the island, the official and political situations are completely different from Kerala and even a police case against them while leading and organising such a protest, will turn out to be a huge burden as they will have to sail the whole long way from Lakshadweep to Kochi, in order to submit themselves before the high court.
The enmity of the educational board towards the language has even lead to a situation that even eligible teachers are kept away from being appointed to posts vacant in the Arabic department. When asked on the issue through RTI, they had an unconvincing answer that, it was because the Calicut University haven’t yet provided the teachers eligibility test question paper. But for other subjects teachers were appointed on a regular basis.