Big No to Move on Telugu

Central Schools in the city are opposing the government's new initiative to make  Telugu a  compulsory subject in schools and colleges saying they have never changed their policies based on state decisions, while outraged citizens including many Telugus, said Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam will lose their cosmopolitan gloss if the government has its way.

There are over 3,000 CBSE and ICSE board schools in Hyderabad and rest of the state, where Telugu is offered as an optional second or third language which students can opt for. Kendriya Vidyalayas in the state, most of which do not offer Telugu language at all, said Delhi will have to take a final call on this issue.

CBSE and KV Sanghatan do not permit compulsory Telugu in schools. KVs offer the language only if there are more than 15 students who are interested in learning the same. So far, in most KVs that has never been the case," said SM Saleem, commissioner of K V Sanghatan, Hyderabad region.

A CBSE official said no policy change has ever been initiated by the CBSE board on the request of any state government. "We have not heard anything officially so far anyway," said a top official, who did not wish to be named.

Minister for secondary education K Parthasarathy announced on Monday that Telugu will be made a compulsory paper and on Tuesday his officers said two separate orders will be issued in two weeks time specifying introduction of Telugu in schools, intermediate and degree colleges , signaling a hurried plunge into a massive revamp of language studies in the state.

In schools where Telugu is already being offered, students will have to opt for it either as second or third language irrespective of what their mother tongue is.

Also in under-graduate colleges including institutions which offer engineering (B Tech/BE) degrees, a third language option will be introduced to accommodate the learning of Telugu.

Though the final decision will be taken by chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, officials of the department of secondary education and higher education will now draft specific rules to be followed while implementing Telugu as a compulsory paper until under graduation level.

Currently, the regional language , Telugu is only one of the options available for students in schools and colleges.

Students who come from other states to study in state board schools were so far allowed to opt for Special English as a paper instead of Telugu, but the new proposal will not allow the same. However, a breather to students who hail from other states came when officials said they will be allowed to learn elementary Telugu in the first few years of their schooling in the state.

In undergraduate colleges, Telugu will now have to be introduced as a third language as students at this level are allowed to take only two languages, English and a language of their choice, said a senior Higher Education department official.

Many citizens, several of them whose mother tongue happens to be Telugu criticized the government's plans. "I oppose this decision to forcibly make all the students learn Telugu, there should be some criteria and demarcation in place," said G Srinivas, a resident of Uppal area.

Cosmopolitan Hyderabad is home to hundreds of central government offices, corporates , IT companies and is one of the few southern cities where Hindi and Urdu along with English and other languages are freely spoken.