Students love these 'french fries'

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">COIMBATORE: Tamil Nadu''s higher secondary students are going French these days. Despite Dravidian indoctrination of ''<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">engum tamizh, ethilum tamizh</span>'' (Tamil everywhere; Tamil in everything) Their ''French love'' should even put Napolean Bonepart to shame who reportedly spoke a bad French! <br /><br />Being a ''scoring subject, it''s more of diplomacy than love. For, what they learn in the name of French is just basics. While students of Hindi/Tamil end up with 50 marks after a Herculean task, most ''Frenchies'' walk away with over 70 with a scorn. Is it justified? Multiplying number of students who tread this <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">kurukkuvazhi </span>(shortcut) shows it''s better not to speak Greek in a world of French! <br /><br />Director of School Education, S Paramasivam says Tamil Nadu currently has 10,000 students in French. "Most of them are urbanites", he says. Chief Education Officer, Mr Naresh too concurs: "In Coimbatore city, 20 schools now offer French." In most schools, ''Frenchies'' outnumber ''Hindustanis.'' For example, Sri Sowdeswari and SBOA schools have only 40 ''Hindustanis'' each as against a French population of 70 and 120!<br /><br />"Students of Hindi/Tamil have to be creative in exams. But, questions are simple in French; "choose correct answer, state true or false, fill in the blanks etc", concurs principal Sri Sowdeswari Vidyalaya K Chandramouli.<br /><br />In fact, students who vie for French throw it into dustbin once they complete the course. For, their sole intention is to improve the aggregate - a criterion for engineering/medicine entrance. Nothing else would speak better of their intentions than a Malayalam adage: ''<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">palam kadakkunnavare narayana; palam kadannal kurayana!</span>'' (<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Zindabad </span>to Narayana till you cross the bridge and Moordabad once you reach the other bank) <br /><br />French has put schools in a big soup: First, they can say no to it only at the cost of losing topper. Second, French teachers being a rare clan, they''ve to put up with their terms. Third, there''s no mechanism to assess their worth, since not even principals know how many alphabets the language has; it would''ve been some solace had the Government guaranteed their worth in the form of a B.Ed certificate; however, they''re exempted from this, probably because a plastic smile is the best ‘<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">brahmastra</span>'', which prevents you from questioning other''s ignorance, as you don''t want to spill out yours! <br /><br />"They take advantage. Our French teacher turns up with question paper half-an-hour before exam. Since I can''t be photocopying in a hurry, I''ve spent Rs 1.75 lakhs on a duplex machine just for him! If we act tough, he''ll go away putting children in trouble," Chandramouli complaints.<br /><br />"Besides doing injustice to Tamil/Hindi students, we also tempt our children to take a shortcut to success" admits a highly placed education department official.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the show still goes on, quite incomprehensible though to many including the village students. For, they still learn Hindi/Tamil unaware of the fact that an easy-to-digest ''French fry'' is being marketed by Tamil Nadu Government with satisfaction guaranteed! </div> </div>