Hyderabad: The government wants to promote and conserve Telugu in other states where there is a significant Telugu population.
Participants from other states who attended the World Telugu Conference here spoke about the plight of Telugu students who want to study Telugu in those states.
Though there are several Telugu schools in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, there are no textbooks and teachers are poorly trained.
A seminar on this subject was held in Ravindra Bharathi on December 19 as part of the WTC.
Telangana Sahitya Academy chairman Nandini Sidda Reddy said, “We received several requests and suggestions from Telugu people residing in other states during the WTC. They are concer-ned about other governments ignoring Telugu.”
Representatives from Gujarat complained that there are over seven lakh Telugu people in the state and 21 Telugu schools, but no teachers. Tamil Nadu representatives said Telugu schools were losing ground since 2006 when the government made Tamil mandatory.
UP representatives said the state government paid salaries to Telugu teachers once a year and that too, for eight months. In Bengal, Bangla/Hindi is compulsory after Class VIII making it difficult for students. In Chhattisgarh, Telugu teachers are paid less than to others.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao wants to take up these issues with his counterparts in other states and is willing to provide free textbooks, teachers, and training. In return, he will offer similar encouragement for students from other states studying in TS to promote their regional languages.
