Jalandhar school gets show-cause notice for not teaching Punjabi as compulsory subject

The Punjab education minister said the state government was committed to maintaining the dignity of the language and any disrespect toward it will not be tolerated at any cost.

The Punjab school education department issued a show-cause notice to a private school in Jalandhar for not teaching Punjabi as a compulsory subject, education minister Harjot Singh Bains said on Saturday.

According to the notification issued by the department of legal and legislative affairs of the state and the Punjab, Punjabi and Learning of Other Languages Act, 2008, it is mandatory for every school in the state to teach Punjabi as a compulsory subject. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Bains said it came to his notice that Punjabi was not being taught as a compulsory subject to students of the school, according to an official release.

Taking serious notice of it, he directed the officials of the school education department to issue a show-cause notice to the school in this regard.

The minister said the state government was committed to maintaining the dignity of the language and any disrespect toward it will not be tolerated at any cost.

According to the notification issued by the department of legal and legislative affairs of the state and the Punjab, Punjabi and Learning of Other Languages Act, 2008, it was mandatory for every school in the state to teach Punjabi as a compulsory subject from Class 1 to 10, Bains said.

He said the department still had been receiving complaints regarding violation of this act by some private schools in the state and stern action will be taken against all violators.

He appealed to all private schools in Punjab to ensure that Punjabi was taught as a compulsory subject.