Kerala's academic community and language lovers' forums have jointly started an agitation against the omission of Malayalam as a subject from the upcoming PSC exam for Lower and Upper Primary (LP, UP) school teachers. An online petition signed by over 34,000 people, which called it a move that could weaken the prominence of the mother tongue, was sent to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the first phase of a campaign to get Malayalam reinstated in the PSC syllabus.
Aikya Malayala Prasthanam (AMP), the organisation that led last year's protest against PSC demanding questions in Malayalam for Kerala Administrative Service (KAS) examination is at the helm of the agitation again.
What's the demand?
Kerala PSC is conducting the exam to hire primary teachers this November. All subjects from the curriculum of the Diploma in Elementary Education (D El-Ed) - the qualifying course for primary school teachers - including social science, English and maths are part of the PSC exam but not Malayalam. The mandatory K-TET (Kerala Teacher Eligibility Test) that all aspirants have to take in the state has Malayalam as a subject as well. The omission of Malayalam by the PSC is a great injustice and can pave the way for its gradual destruction, agitators say.
AMP state council member and the coordinator of the ongoing agitation Premachandran P said the controversial move isn't a new one as Malayalam has been omitted from the syllabus for almost two decades now. Up until 1995, almost 40% of questions were based on Malayalam, he noted.
"It's just sad that the issue failed to grab public attention all these years. Isn't it unfair to omit Malayalam from the exams when D El-Ed students study it as an important subject with a 400-mark exam and four semesters of internal assessment?" asks Premachandran.
Why learning Malayalam is important?
Elementary education plays a vital role in helping children connect to their socio-cultural roots. Neither science nor humanities can engage a young mind if not taught in the mother tongue, academicians argue. Kerala's primary education has in fact been designed to introduce kids to their culture through stories, poems and other activities in Malayalam, they say.
Malayalam is the most important subject in primary classes under the state board, explains Premachandran. "There aren't many books for students of class I and II as part of the integrated education system. Even maths and science is taught in Malayalam through brief poems, stories etc. If people unskilled in teaching Malayalam get hired as elementary school teachers, how will they be able to do this?" he asks.
"These are men and women who hold the responsibility to introduce young minds to their culture and seal their connection with the mother tongue. How can they manage this sensitive task if they are not proficient in the subject?" he asks.
'Malayalam in danger'
Under the current rules, people who haven't learnt Malayalam as a subject at higher secondary school or college level can apply and get posted as school teachers in Kerala. But it is also mandatory for Upper Primary (UP) teachers to teach all subjects, forcing those with little or no idea of Malayalam literature to teach the language - like it or not.
Premachandran points out that there are two parts for Malayalam in upper primary (V- VII) syllabi. Somebody who hasn't learnt Malayalam will be incompetent when it comes to handling lessons in poetry, grammar etc.
While the English proficiency of future teachers is ensured, Malayalam gets omitted from the syllabus altogether. Hence, it gives the impression that Malayalam is unimportant and can be handled by anybody without professional calibre.
"Youngsters spend a good year or two preparing for competitive exams like these. This makes candidates go deep into the world of Malayalam literature, criticism, history, grammar and the like. Once Malayalam gets removed as a subject from hiring exams, it slowly gets sidelined, gradually becomes useless and getting ousted from the syllabus of other exams and courses as well in the long run. This can't be permitted," says Premachandran.
PSC's explanation
According to PSC, the move won't lessen the language's importance as Malayalam remains the medium for the examination. However, Kerala's academia is further angered by this argument and have dismissed it as a "stupid alibi."
This agitation is not about the medium of education but to safeguard the prominence that Malayalam language and literature deserve, noted scholar and orator Sunil P Elayidam had earlier said.
"Some say it is alright as all classes are taken in Malayalam and the teachers are Keralites. But it is dangerous to give nod to this thought," he had said.
"This gives the wrong impression that mother tongue is just a tool for everyday use and there is nothing more to learn in it if you are capable of making small talks or read newspapers and bus boards," Elayidam had written earlier.
What's next?
Supported by the "language through curriculum" wave of educational reforms, Malayalam was able to retain its prominence in the syllabus when the erstwhile Teachers Training Course (TTC) was made a Diploma in Education (D Ed) course in 2002 and D El-Ed in 2018. But moves like these could derail all efforts to promote the language that is among the classical languages of the country.
If we downplay the importance of learning Malayalam as a competitive subject, it will lead to its destruction and this has to be dealt with now, AMP believes.
Though the state government in 2017 had passed an ordinance making Malayalam mandatory in all schools including those under the CBSE and ICSE boards, this isn't strictly adhered to, they say.
AMP decided to start the agitation as their several attempts to bring the issue to the attention of the Education Department, Official Language Department and even the Kerala PSC proved fruitless. However, they are content that the online petition campaign was well received.
With the test fast approaching, they have reached out to the Official Language Department yet again and are waiting for a response before going ahead with protests.