Imposing Telugu Late is Unfair, Say Parents
Rahul Kejriwal, a parent and protest organiser and one of the petitioners in the PIL before the High Court had earlier said: “We only want the freedom to let our children study the language that makes sense for their future. My son wants to learn Telugu, but as a third language, not second. Why not give that option?”
Hyderabad: Venkat Sainath of the Hyderabad School Parents Association (HSPA) said: “If a child has been studying in Hyderabad from LKG or primary classes, there is no harm in continuing Telugu as a second language. But imposing it on a student who joins in Class 8 or later, without prior exposure, is unfair and impractical.”
“Children should learn Telugu if they are here. My nephew, who moved to Kolkata, is learning Bengali,” Sainath said, reacting to the Telangana High Court not issue interim orders in a PIL challenging the state government`s decision making Telugu mandatory to the second language in CBSE, ICSE, IB, Cambridge, and other national curriculum schools
Rahul Kejriwal, a parent and protest organiser and one of the petitioners in the PIL before the High Court had earlier said: “We only want the freedom to let our children study the language that makes sense for their future. My son wants to learn Telugu, but as a third language, not second. Why not give that option?”
Students, too, had voiced the strain in a protest earlier in April. “I’ve been studying Hindi as my second language from Class 1,” said a Class 7 student from Delhi Public School Nacharam. “Now I have to start Telugu from the basics, while others in my class are already far ahead. We’re being made to start both Hindi and Telugu again from scratch.” Another student, whose father is posted in the Army, had pointed out how frequent transfers made language continuity near impossible.