Teacher turns down promotion to uphold Tamil

The Kovilpatti-based Dr Kanagalakshmi holds an undergraduate degree in literature, postgraduate degree in Tamil from the Tamil University, and has been awarded the title of ‘Pulavar’ by the Karanthai Tamil Sangam.
She has obtained her doctorate by researching on the topic, ‘Difficulties and solutions in Tamil reading skills.’ She has been creating content to assist people to learn Tamil in just 40 days. She has made multiple books and YouTube videos.
She resigned her work as a school principal in Ramanathapuram district, and joined as an intermediate teacher in Shenoy Nagar corporation school in Chennai. She has been identifying students who struggle to read and write Tamil, and teaching them for the past 23 years.
She had identified 100 students from six schools in Olakkur village in Villupuram, and taught them to read and write Tamil in just 40 days. She was also appreciated by the district collector for helping about 156,710 students to learn Tamil in Tiruvannamalai district. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she trained 36 children and 2,000 teachers in Tamil language.
The UK-based Croydon Tamil Sangam, which has been monitoring her works through social media, has decided to honour the teacher in the UK Parliament. She has also been invited to participate in the ceremony to unveil the statue of Thiruvalluvar at Oxford university.
“Tamil is easy both to learn and teach,” says Kanagalakshmi. Her research is that one can write Tamil without errors within one hour, even though they have been writing the language with errors for almost a decade.
School education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi personally called on her and congratulated her.
The UK Parliament is all set to honour the Tamil scholar. At the same time, it is also equally important for both the union and state governments to acknowledge her works and honour her.