VIJAYAWADA: All degree colleges in the State will offer courses only in English medium from the 2021-22 academic year. The Andhra Pradesh State Council for Higher Education (APSCHE) issued orders to this effect Monday. All private-unaided degree colleges and private-aided colleges offering unaided courses in Telugu medium were asked to convert existing Telugu medium sections into English medium. The decision to teach in only English medium from the 2021-22 academic year was taken by the Higher Education department during a review meeting held with Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on February 12. In a press release issued here on Monday, APSCHE secretary Prof.
B Sudheer Prem Kumar said online applications for sanction of new or additional programmes and conversion of combination/medium in English medium were invited from existing private degree colleges through a notification of the Council on April 27, 2021. Prem Kumar said applications for new un-aided four-year UG honours programmes in English medium only will be accepted from 2021-22.
Therefore, all the private unaided degree colleges and private aided colleges offering unaided courses in Telugu medium are requested to submit proposal for conversion of all existing Telugu medium sections into English medium, with the exception of Languages under Part-Il, along with the required documents to the Council from June 18 to 28. If the proposal for conversion into English medium is not submitted, then the programme cannot be offered from 2021-22.
“Any request submitted at a later point of time will not be entertained,’’ he said. The APSCHE secretary said private unaided degree colleges and private aided degree colleges with unaided degree programmes, who want to surrender unviable or defunct UG programmes, can also withdraw them by submitting the proposal from June 18 to 28. “Managements need not pay any processing fee either for conversion of medium or withdrawal of programmes,’’ the APSCHE secretary informed.
Meanwhile, Government College Gazetted Teachers Association general secretary AR Chandrasekhar welcomed the state government’s initiative of offering programmes in English medium from the next academic year. “This, however, will achieve results only if the government conducts training sessions and crash courses for the faculty, teaching undergraduate courses,’’ he opined. Speaking to TNIE, Chandrasekhar recalled that between 2005 and 2010, the then government conducted English Language Fellow Training (ELFT) for the government degree colleges faculty to enable them to teach their respective subjects in English medium. However, since a decade, no such initiative was taken to train the faculty. “It’s not a herculean task to train the faculty as the majority of them can communicate in English. However, there should be some references which need to be taught in the mother tongue,” Chandrasekhar observed.
STUDENTS TO GET OXFORD DICTIONARIES
The state government on Monday issued orders for procurement and supply of Oxford compact dictionaries to the students of classes VI to X of government schools under Jagananna Vidya Kanuka. The move came after a high-level committee constituted for the procurement and supply of all the components of the ‘student kits’ decided to supply two types of dictionaries: a picture dictionary by SCERT to the students of classes 1 to 5, and Oxford’s to the rest