Hyderabad: Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday asked teachers to introspect whether they want to be remembered as Brihaspati (guru of gods) by imparting good education and values to students or remain as Shani Graha by neglecting their duties.
He was speaking at the Teachers’ Day celebrations organised by the state government at Ravindra Bharathi.
Recollecting his school days as a student of government high school in Dubbaka in Medak district, he said, “Those days, teachers were highly committed. They used to spend their own money and offer prizes to students who performed well in academics and other extra-curricular activities. I cannot forget my teacher Mruthyunjaya Sharma, who taught me Telugu literature, poetry and epics like Mahabharata, Ramayana etc. He used to teach me for free at his house at 5 am as I was interested in those subjects. If today I am standing before you, it is because of akshara biksha of my great teachers.”
He said the government will implement compulsory English education from Class I to XII, from next year. “We have promised free and compulsory education from KG to PG. I know that it’s not possible to implement the entire scheme in a year. We will start with compulsory English education from Class I to XII in phases, for which we will set up a school with high standards in each mandal or Assembly constituency initially. Based on the results, we will extend the scheme to higher classes every year,” Mr Rao added.
He said only English education will help Telangana students compete globally and cited China as a classic example for this.
“Earlier, China was strongly opposed to English education. But now it is implementing compulsory English education to make its students globally competitive. China trained taxi drivers and hotel staff in English during Beijing Olympics. Now the Chinese are speaking fluent English,” Mr Rao said.
Stating that learning English was not such a tough task as feared by some government teac-hers, he advised them to communicate with students in English.
- Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said only English education will help Telangana students compete globally and cited China as a classic example for this.
- Stating that learning English was not such a tough task as feared by some government teachers, he advised them to communicate with students in English.
