Hyderabad: More than a month after the announcement, the TS government is yet to issue orders making Telugu compulsory from Classes I to XII in all educational institutions. It is instead drafting a law for this purposes.
An official said that the government was working on a Bill to make Telugu compulsory instead of issuing an order which could be challenged in courts. An official of education department said that the Bill for this would be introduced in the ensuing Assembly Session.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao announced at the recent World Telugu Conference and earlier too that the government would make Telugu compulsory in all educational institutions from the next academic year.
The government earlier felt that issuing orders would be enough for implementing the programme. There are previous government orders making Telugu compulsory in educational institutions. A senior official said most educational institutions were not implementing the orders.
The official said that the state has Marathi, Tamil and Kannada schools, apart from those affiliated to the CBSE and ICSC. The government thought that unless it brought an Act, it would not be possible to implement this in all government and private educational institutions.
At present, the draft Bill was under scrutiny of the law department. Once the department cleared it, the government was expected to introduce the Bill in the Assembly. An official of education department looking after this issue said, “The state government wants to implement the making of Telugu language compulsory very strictly in all educational institutions. For this the government is bringing an Act.”
He said all educational institutions, including CBSE, ICSC, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada and Urdu medium schools, would have to teach Telugu and there would be no exemption. The committee appointed by the state government on this issue suggested bringing the new Act and as issuing of a GO would not be enough.
If a GO was issued, some could go to court against that and get exemption, said an officer of law department.
