The Telangana government on Monday decided to bring a legislation to introduce the English medium in government schools from the next academic year and regulate fees in private schools and colleges. The decision was taken at a meeting of the state Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
A cabinet sub-committee has been constituted to prepare guidelines after a detailed analysis of the two proposals. To be headed by Education Minister P. Sabitha Indra Reddy, the sub-committee will have 10 other ministers as members. They included information technology and industry minister KT Rama Rao and finance and health minister T Harish Rao. The Cabinet decided that the Bill will be introduced in the next legislature session.
“The Cabinet felt that since the government's Residential Educational Institutions are getting wonderful results and becoming role models in the country, more and more students are joining these institutions from the rural areas. At the same time, since the farm sector and allied professions are strengthened along with the rural economy, parents in the villages are thinking more about their children’s education and future. In this backdrop, there is an increase in demand for English medium education, the Cabinet observed,” a press release from the Chief Minister’s Office stated.
"The Cabinet felt that the parents in rural areas are ready to send their children to the government schools if the medium of instruction is in English in the government schools. Hence, the cabinet decided to have English as the medium of instruction in the government schools and to develop infrastructure accordingly,” it added.
The Cabinet also approved a scheme 'Mana vooru mana badi' (our village our school) at a cost of Rs 7,289 crore for providing quality education and basic amenities in schools. The Cabinet also approved a proposal by the education minister to set up a university exclusively for women. Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar was directed to prepare a detailed proposal in this regard for the next Cabinet meeting. The Cabinet also gave its nod to set up Telangana Forest University. The forest department officials were asked to prepare a detailed report in this regard by the next Cabinet meeting.