The Tamil Nadu Tamil Learning Act, 2006 is a legislative Act of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, specifically Act No. 13 of 2006, which mandates the compulsory teaching of the Tamil language in all schools across the state. The Act was created to implement a policy decision by the Government of Tamil Nadu to ensure all students learn Tamil. It received the Governor's assent on June 9, 2006, and its phased implementation began from the academic year 2006-2007.
The core mechanism is detailed in Section 3(1), which stipulates that Tamil shall be taught as a subject in Standards I to X in all schools, including private and minority institutions, in a phased manner. The Act establishes a three-part language formula where Tamil is compulsory (Part-I) and English is compulsory (Part-II). Crucially, Section 3(2), Part-IV, allows students whose mother tongue is neither Tamil nor English to study their mother tongue as an optional subject. The Act was upheld by the Madras High Court in K.R. Ramaswamy v. State, which ruled that the compulsory nature of the subject did not infringe on minority rights as it permitted the optional study of the mother tongue.
A significant change occurred in 2017 when the Act was amended to exempt non-Tamil speaking Class X students from other states from the compulsory Tamil requirement for the SSLC board exams, allowing them to opt for another language. This amendment provided relief for students, such as wards of central government employees, who joined the state's schools mid-way.