Accreditation

San Antonio Tamil School is proud to announce that we are accredited for six years from January 30th 2018.

Cognia Accreditation

Accreditation of San Antonio Tamil School demonstrates our commitment to high-quality Tamil language education. Cognia provides a clear, evidence-based framework that builds confidence, strengthens readiness, and fosters continuous improvement over time. Cognia is a US based non-profit organization catering to the educational standards for over 100 years. Cognia accreditation is valid for 6 years and require reevaluation and audit every 6 years. Accreditation follows a well-documented and structured process with following steps.

• Submit application including fees.
• Readiness Review: (Within 3 months) upon receipt of application the appropriate Cognia office reviews readiness.
• Capacity and integrity to adhere to the Cognia standards and policies.
• School has the capacity to support continuous school improvement.
• Determination if the school should become a candidate for accreditation.
• Internal Assessment: Upon achievement of candidate status, the school completes the Self-Assessment and prepares for the External Review.
• External Review (Within 2 years of receiving candidacy status) the candidate school hosts an External Review. Audits, Reviews and grants the final accreditation status.

Accreditation is for five-year term as long as the school:

• Adheres to the Cognia accreditation standards and policies.
• Engages in the Cognia process and procedures for continuous improvement.
• Submits the Self-Assessment report 6 to 4 weeks prior to the External Review.
• Hosts an External Review at least once every five years.
• Shares a progress report on the required actions 2 years following the External Review.
• Shares more frequent progress reports if schools placed on Advisement, Warned, or Probation as instructed.
• Pays annual accreditation fees as required.

How are students benefited by accreditation?

Tamil Schools and education in the US is totally different from the formal Tamil Language teaching process in Tamil Nadu, Singapore, Malaysia, Eelam etc. where the language is taught as a subject every day for 12 years. But in US, students learn Tamil only as a second language. US school system (K-12) requires every high school student (Grade 9 to 12) to learn a language other than English for 4 years. Students earn minimum 4 language credits for this and it helps them to accrue the valuable credits to join any college/university degree, which in turn help them to save tuition fee. Keeping this in mind, Tamil schools were pursuing to be accredited to encourage students to learn Tamil as a second language and earn the language credits. After all, the greatest classical language from Asia with unbroken grammar for over 2000 years is a treasure for every Tamilian. It is time for the world to recognize and appreciate, that this unique pride started at the world super power United States of America, the land of immigrants where every language/culture is equally respected and recognized. Students from Tamil descent (either from Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia) usually learn other languages like Spanish, German, French, in few instances Japanese or Chinese to earn the four language credits. Learning Tamil via accredited Institutions help the students to earn Seal of biliteracy award and/or additional world language credits. With the accreditation of Tamil schools, students learning Tamil will dramatically increase, which may also lead Tamil being taught in regular US school at districts where Tamil population is dense

Global Seal of Biliteracy

The purpose of the Seal of Biliteracy:

• The Seal of Biliteracy in Tamil is an official recognition awarded to high school students who demonstrate professional or intermediate-high proficiency in both English and Tamil
• To encourage students to demonstrate a high-level of proficiency in speaking and writing in Tamil
• Get certified attainment of biliteracy in Tamil
• To provide employers with a method to identify people with language and biliteracy skills
• To provide universities with a method to recognize and give academic credit to applicants seeking admission; and
• To recognize and promote Tamil language instruction in public schools

To learn more, visit the link below and read more in the attached documents below

• Advant Assessment: Click here

SA Tamil School Avant Tamil test and Avant Testing FAQ's

• AVANT Assessment_STAMP WS Parent Guide
• Avant Assessment_STAMP WS Student (Test Taker) Guide
• Avant Testing_Rules and FAQ
• SA Tamil School_Avant Exam FAQ

What is new in 2026-27?

San Antonio Tamil School is planning to collaborate with UT High School, Austin to enable our students to take the Credit-by-exam in Tamil to gain 0.5 credit points each year starting from I1B level. The exams cover LSRW (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing) proficiencies. No special keyboard is required—standard Unicode Tamil typing is sufficient. To learn more,

• Visit the link here: Click here
• Visit the link here: Click here