In a significant step, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to convert all government schools teaching from class I to VIII into English medium from next academic year. Telugu or Urdu will be made compulsory subjects. In a nutshell, there will be no Telugu medium schools in the Telugu state. School education department principal secretary B Rajsekhar issued a government order (GO Ms. No. 81) to the effect on Tuesday.
The government order says that teaching in government schools, Mandal (block) Parishad and Zilla Parishad schools will be converted to English medium from the academic year 2020-21. However, classes IX and X in all schools will be converted to English medium from the academic year 2021-22.
However, Teachers’ unions are against the move. United Teachers Federation (UTF) in a statement on Wednesday condemned the YS Jaganmohan Reddy government’s move. “The Federation wonders why Telugu as a medium has to be sacrificed for starting English medium classes,” General Secretary Shaik Sabji said. The Teachers unions further wondered about the standard of the students who will be converted into English medium from next academic year.
K. Narasimha Reddy, MLC speaking to reporters argued that the decision goes against the recommendations of Kasturi Rangan committee. “It was suggested to impart teaching in mother tongue at least for primary classes. This is also in deviation of the new education bill that is expected to come before the Parliament soon,” the MLC who got elected under teacher’s quota observed.
Several teachers who have been teaching classes in Telugu medium pointed out that they are not familiar with English nomenclature and the time to refresh in English is too short. Many suggested that half of the schools can be converted into English and the remaining in phases so that the teachers can take fresher courses.
In the past, the YS Rajasekhara Reddy regime, on experimental basis introduced English medium sections parallel to Telugu sections in 6,500 schools.
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