Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Monday approved the amendment to be made to the rules of the education department, making the study of Telugu and English compulsory in all schools in the state.
The rule of compulsory study of Telugu and English will be applicable to 1.29 crore students of Classes I to X in around one lakh government, private and government-aided private schools.
State Official Language Commission chairman Mandali Buddha Prasad called on the chief minister at the latter’s camp office here on Monday with the proposal to make study of Telugu compulsory in schools and the chief minister immediately accorded the permission to amend the rules. “Orders to make Telugu and English compulsory will be issued in two or three days,” sources said.
According to the sources, students whose mother tongue is not Telugu will be given an opportunity to opt for their mother tongue as the first language. Telugu will be the second language for them. At present, such children studying in state government schools have the option to choose Special English instead of Telugu.
With the latest orders, non-Telugu students will have to take Telugu, instead of Special English, as the second language of study. For example, a student whose mother tongue is Tamil or Hindi can choose Tamil or Hindi as the first language but have to study Telugu compulsorily Telugu as the second language.
If the students fail to learn Telugu properly, they will lose marks and lag behind in getting overall score and good ranks.
The World Telugu Conference, held at Tirupati recently, has adopted a resolution calling for making Telugu a compulsory language of study in schools.
Hosur MLA Gopinath brought to the notice of Buddha Prasad that Tamil was made compulsory in Tamil Nadu schools and Telugu-speaking students were unable to get good marks and ranks in the Tamil Nadu board examinations. Buddha Prasad assured Gopinath that he would take up the matter with the Tamil Nadu governor and the chief minister.
Sometime later, Buddha Prasad proposed a similar policy for implementation in Andhra Pradesh _ making study of the local language compulsory for all students.
However, study of Telugu can not be made compulsory in schools following the central syllabus (ICSE or CBSE) as they are not governed by the state government.