Telangana Govt to Pass Bill Making Telugu a Compulsory Subject Till Class X

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday instructed officials to initiate measures for introducing Telugu as one of the compulsory subjects to be taught in all private and government schools in the state from the 2018-19 academic year.

To implement the policy, a bill would have to be passed in the ongoing Budget session of the legislature, a release from Rao's office quoted him as saying. He had a meeting with a team of officials who visited Tamil Nadu to study the implementation of the mother tongue Tamil in educational institutions, it said.

Rao said that the decision to make Telugu one of the compulsory subjects was taken to save the language and protect the culture. “It has become a necessity for everyone these days to study in the English medium with the changing circumstances. Children’s future should not be disturbed, but at the same time Telugu also should not be neglected,” he said.

“This is the reason why we are putting a condition that even children studying in the English medium should study Telugu as a subject,” the chief minister said.

Initially, it was planned that Telugu would be made a compulsory subject till the Intermediate level. But it has now decided to do so only up to 10th standard as intermediate course is not the same in all schools.

“It would have been difficult to introduce Telugu as a compulsory language at this stage. After studying the mother tongue policy that is in implementation in Tamil Nadu and Punjab, we have decided to implement Telugu as a compulsory subject till tenth standard only for the present,” the chief minister added.

Telugu Sahitya Academy and Telugu University have been asked to prepare the syllabus.

“The students should be taught through the mother tongue about the useful things in life besides protecting the Telugu language. The course material should have content that inculcates patriotism and ethical values among the children,” the CM said.

Adding that the government will take positive measures for the bright future of children who study Telugu as a subject, the chief minister also instructed the officials from education department to ensure that at least one Telugu Pandit is appointed in all the private schools.