The Telangana government has decided to make Telugu a mandatory subject in school textbooks from the next academic year, and efforts are being made to implement this.
A review meeting was held on Tuesday, chaired by Deputy Chief Minister and state Education Minister Kadiyam Srihari, who received the sub-committee report on making Telugu a compulsory subject from Class I to Intermediate.
Special textbooks were being prepared to suit non-Telugu students, along with exclusive text books for those who will study Telugu for the first time in Class VI, high school and Inter, Telangana Today reported, adding that 1370 schools in the state did not teach Telugu at present.
The Deputy CM asked officials to implement Telugu as a subject without causing much hardship to students at any level, while the sub-committee informed the senior politician that the issue had been discussed with CBSE and ICSE authorities, who had not expressed any objection to the state's decision, The Hindu reported.
In September this year, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said that all public and private schools in the state must offer Telugu as a subject compulsorily.
The schools which fail to do so, will be de-recognised and not allowed to be function in the state, KCR said.
“There is no second option for the schools, both in the government and private sector. They have to offer Telugu as a compulsory subject in every class. Those institutions refusing to implement the government decision will not henceforth get approvals from the state education department," a senior official told the said at the time.
Earlier in August, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu advised both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to make Telugu the language of administration as well as a compulsory subject for people to get government jobs.
"I am not saying Telugu should be the medium of instruction but everybody should compulsorily study Telugu as a language and as a subject," he said.
Describing English as a "disease", he said it had gripped all. "I know it will not go away easily. Its medicine is also not easy. It has spread like an infectious disease," he said, while clarifying that he is not against English.