HC notices over Telugu as compulsory subject in schools New

Telangana High Court on Thursday directed the State government to explain the status of implementation of Telugu as compulsory subject in all the schools of the State.

A bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin passed this interim order after hearing a PIL plea challenging the government’s decision making Telugu as second language mandatory. As per the Telangana (Compulsory Teaching and Learning of Telugu in Schools) Act-2018, all the primary and high schools in the State were given five years of time to begin enforcement of teaching Telugu compulsorily. The Act mandated that students from first to tenth standards were taught Telugu as a subject from 2023.

Pramila Pathak, a sexagenarian Hindi teacher from Ramachandrapuram of Medak district, filed the petition seeking to declare imposition of Telugu on all school students pursuing CBSE, ICSE, IB, Cambridge and other national boards as illegal and arbitrary. She contended that non-Telugu students would find it difficult to follow Telugu. In addition to the Principal Secretary and Director of School Education along with the Chief Secretary, the petitioner made several international schools as respondents in the petition.

The CJ sough to know from the officials about the steps initiated for implementation of Telugu as compulsory subject. The bench directed the government and the schools to file counter affidavits within two weeks.