Telugu likely to be made compulsory in schools

The State Official Language Commission is contemplating making Telugu language compulsory from primary education to higher education.

Commission chairman Mandali Buddha Prasad held a review meeting here on Monday on implementation of Telugu with the minister for school education and principal secretaries of the primary and higher education departments.

Prasad said they were committed to making Telugu a compulsory language of study in the state.

The commission is also planning to make classical dance and other fine arts  compulsory in school education to keep the Telugu culture alive.

“US president Obama also encouraging fine arts in education,” Buddha Prasad said.

Asked if it would burden a non-Telugu child who would have to learn four languages - Telugu, English, Hindi and his mother tongue, Buddha Prasad evaded a direct  reply and simply said study of Telugu would be made compulsory to preserve the language.

A similar predicament was faced by Telugu students in Tamil Nadu five years ago when the Tamil was introduced in schools as a subject of compulsory study. The Hosur (Tamil Nadu) MLA called on Buddha Prasad here recently and explained how Telugu students were disadvantaged and losing the score in the Class X examinations as they could not learn Tamil.

Minister Sailajanath said the Andhra Pradesh government was printing Tamil and Kannada language textbooks for the benefit of the students whose mother tongue was Tamil and Kannada. However, making Telugu compulsory was just a proposal as of now and they would take up the matter with chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, the minister said.