Compiled by JUNAID IBRAHIM, C. ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN

       Local Tamil educators and activists welcomed the government’s announcement to provide scholarships for doctorate research students in the field of Tamil language and Tamil literature, Makkal Osai reported.

       The Education Ministry reportedly announced on Friday that the scholarships would be made available for students pursuing the subjects in public universities at PhD level.

       President of the Educational, Welfare and Research Foundation (EWRF) Govindasamy Annamalai welcomed the announcement and said while there were opportunities available to pursue these courses in public universities, the scholarship application was not available for all public universities.

       There had been growing discontent recently among Tamil educators and the community as the scholarship application was initially allowed only for Universiti Malaya like previous years.

       Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon, who was briefed on the matter, agreed that scholarship should be made available for Tamil language and Tamil Literature studies at PhD level for all public universities.

       After a review, the ministry announced that PhD students pursuing these courses in all public universitiess can apply for the scholarship.

       The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.