Chennai,   The demand for teachers in German, French, Chinese and Japanese has gone up in Tamil Nadu after the state government announced that final year engineering students in government and aided colleges will have to mandatorily study a foreign language.

While there were reports on the state government planning for such a move, the State Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudi on Monday announced in the state Assembly that final year engineering students in government and aided colleges will have to undergo training in one or the other of the above mentioned foreign language.

This has led to a rush for scouting good teachers in these languages who are adept in both written and spoken parts of these languages.

Sources in the Tamil Nadu higher education department told IANS that the state may need a large volume of teachers and that the presence of Japanese and Chinese teachers will be less when compared to German and French educators.

K.S. Sunil Kumar, a German language teacher based out at AnnaA Nagar (East), Chennai, while speaking to IANS said: "I have been teaching German language skills for the past seven years and I feel that the government decision that government and aided engineering students are required to study one or the other foreign language is a welcome move. However, I am now fully occupied with my present strength of students, but will take a call if the government approaches me regarding the same."

Higher education department will be preparing a list of available teachers in these foreign languages and a senior officer with the higher education minister's office told IANS that the state would have difficulties in getting Japanese and Chinese teachers.

The department is roping in the services of the embassies of the concerned countries to get a proper data bank of the teachers who are well versed in both the written and spoken aspects of the language.

Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudi while speaking to IANS said: "The higher education department has been contemplating this for long and we have now decided that the students become prepared in linguistic skills before passing out of college. This will make them more qualified in the job market and the Chief Minister, Thiru M.K. Stalin has been giving advice on teaching engineering students with foreign languages so that they have acquired one more skill before graduating."

Sources in the ministry also said that the department is contemplating providing financial support to private language coaching centres to train the students of government and aided engineering colleges.