Feb 25, Colombo: A teacher trade union in Sri Lanka says the documents in zonal education offices are only in Sinhala language.

The Ceylon Teachers' Union (CTU) has noted that Tamil teachers in the country faced difficulties in dealing with administrative issues since all documents are in Sinhala language.

CTU General Secretary Joseph Stalin says Tamil teachers face difficulties with Sinhala document and unavailability of documents in Tamil language is a violation of the national languages policy launched by the National Languages and Social Integration Ministry.

Citing an example, Stalin said in Hatton of the Central Province, where a majority of the residents are plantation Tamils, there are 34 Sinhala schools and 114 Tamil schools with a majority of the teachers being Tamils. However, all documents at the zonal education office are in Sinhala.

According to Stalin, the authorities need to be aware of this situation and work towards implementing the national languages policy evenly.