Strange penalty for speaking Malayalam in Kerala school

Seven fourth standard students of Jayarani Public School at Thodupuzha in Idukki returned home on Wednesday with a poster pinned to their uniforms. 'I'm very disobedient. I always speak Malayalam,' it read. It was the punishment given by the class teacher for speaking Malayalam in school! 

The teacher found the students speaking in Malayalam and gave them the strange punishment. The school headmistress tried to defend the act as part of a game to encourage students to speak in English. "It was part of the 'study with game' programme," Sister Rosalyn said.

But the parents and students didn't like the 'game' very much and filed a complaint with the local police and District Child Welfare Committee. The police have taken a case against the school and the teacher from Nagaland. 

Also read: Child punished for screaming 'Aiyo'
 

In December last year, a student of Champion School in Ernakulam was asked to write imposition for screaming 'Aiyo!' The student was made to write 50 times that he would not speak in Malayalam again!

Malayalam, the mother tongue of Keralites, is a neglected language despite the state having 100 per cent literacy. In December 2015, Kerala Assembly passed Malayalam Language (Dissemination and Enrichment) Bill, making the mother tongue of the state as the sole official language and making it mandatory to teach Malayalam in all schools. But the legislation and the sustained campaign for protecting Malayalam seem to have no effect on private English Medium Schools in Kerala, as is evident by the latest incident. 

• Malayalam
• English Medium schools
• Kerala Education
• fine for speaking Malayalam