The Tamil Nadu State Council for Educational Research and Training (TNSCERT) has scrapped the full lesson ‘The Status of Tamil as a Classical Language’ from the Class 12 English textbook, after a recent furore overstating Tamil language is younger than Sanskrit.

“Students will not be tested on that lesson. We have instructed all schools to skip that lesson,” said a senior official from the council.

The fifth unit of the English book said that the origin of Tamil language is 300 BC, while Sanskrit’s origin was mentioned as 2,000 BC. Political parties condemned the date, saying that Tamil originated from a period older than what was mentioned in the book. The chief educational officers have been instructed to give appropriate guidelines to the headmasters while teaching the subject. TNSCERT also issued notices to 13 teachers.