Telangana Assembly nod for Telugu as compulsory

​Hyderabad: The much-awaited legal backing to implement Telugu language as a compulsory subject in all schools of the State came on Saturday as the State Assembly gave its nod. 

Moving the bill in the house, Deputy Chief Minister Kadiyam Srihari said the decision to implement Telugu as a compulsory language was taken by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, before and after conducting the World Telugu Congress in Hyderabad.

As part of this, a team headed by Telangana Sahithya Academy Chairman Nandini Siddha Reddy visited Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Punjab to study how those States implemented a similar policy. After considering all aspects, it was decided to adopt the Tamil Nadu State model, he added.

Accordingly, Telugu would be made compulsory to students studying in Class-I and Class-VI under State as well as the central syllabus and any other school functioning under government, private, aided and other management, he said.

The Deputy Chief Minister said Telugu would be studied as the first language, English as the second and the student’s mother tongue or any other language of choice would be studied as the third language. The same formula would be implemented even in Urdu, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali and others medium schools located in the city and elsewhere in the State. 

This is to ensure that the students with a mother tongue other than Telugu are not deprived of learning their own languages, he said. Also, students of Class VI will be studying Telugu of Class I standard because it would be difficult for the students from another language background to catch up with the VI standard Telugu prescribed to native speakers, he said. 

In a phased manner Telugu would be introduced in higher classes up to Class X, he added. Welcoming the bill, MIM MLA Mozam Khani asked the government to take steps that the marks obtained are not counted to decide grades. Because students from other language mediums would not be in a position to compete with the native speakers, he added. He also asked to ensure that the schools appoint Telugu teachers.

BJP floor leader G Kishan Reddy welcomed the bill, but, pointed out, passing bill alone would not help in the promotion of Telugu. He asked Deputy Speaker Padma Devender Reddy in the chair, first to ensure making usage of Telugu in the Assembly mandatory. Also, he asked the government to issue government orders in the Telugu language. Promotion of Telugu should be taken as a mass movement, and it would be appropriate if it starts from the State Assembly, he said.