Telangana, March 25: Directing to make Telugu as one of the important subjects to be taught in all private and government schools from the academic year 2018-19, the state government a bill was passed in the budget session to make the language compulsory. The Telangana Legislative Assembly on Saturday passed a Bill to make Telugu compulsory in all schools in the state.
All parties in the state including the BJP, AIMIM and TDP supported the Telangana (Compulsory Teaching and Learning of Telugu in Schools) Act, 2018. The bill was moved on the floor of the House by Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Kadiam Srihari, who said that it aimed to conserve and promote Telugu, which was the language of the people.
The bill stated, "Telugu language shall be,- (a) at school level,- (i) a compulsory subject from Standard I to Standard X; (ii) introduced at Standard I in Primary Schools and Standard VI in the High Schools from the Academic Year 2018-19 and shall be extended for further classes progressively as specified in the Schedule."
However, changing its earlier stance that the language would be compulsory till Class 10 in one go. Dividing it in phases, the state government said that Telugu would be introduced only in Class 1 and Class 6 this academic year in Central schools, and gradually be implemented till Class 10 in the next phase.
Earlier this week, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao said that his state government had decided to make Telugu a mandatory subject in all public and private schools from the coming academic year.