VIJAYAWADA: The State government filed a counter affidavit before the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday defending its decision to introduce English medium in all government schools across the State.
The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed against the government decision. Advocate General S Sriram argued that the government’s decision does not violate Section 29 of the Right to Education Act (RTE), 2009.
“Article 350 of the Indian Constitution provides only for safeguarding rights of the linguistic minorities for being taught that in their mother tongue,” he said. Three judgements passed by the Supreme Court in 2014 related to imposition of a certain language as the medium of instruction in schools were also submitted before the court.
The AG requested the court to consider the draft policy of the Centre (National Education Policy 2019), which has discussed only the possibilities and not made it imperative to formulate the new policy.
The institutions mentioned in Article 30 and private institutions are not affected. The government also attached records showing support of 97 per cent of parents’ committees for making English as medium of instruction in schools.
The government has taken steps to promote mother tongue by making Telugu as a compulsory subject in the curriculum, he said and added that the government has issued orders only after examining the aspirations of the people. He also said that the petitioners did not mention that their children were studying in Telugu medium.
“The courts shouldn’t deal as appellate authority and stop government policies. The court has limited role in policy decisions and cannot direct on the policy making,” he pointed out, concluding his arguments. The counter affidavit was filed in response to the PILs filed by BJP leader Sudhish Rambhotla and one Guntupalli Srinivas.
In their petitions, they had argued that the government decision was discriminatory and violated the right to free and compulsory education as per the RTE Act.