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Telangana cabinet decides to make English medium compulsory in all govt schools from coming academic year
A decision to this effect was taken at the state cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday.
The Telangana government will introduce English medium compulsorily in all government schools from the coming academic year 2022-23.
A decision to this effect was taken at the state cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday.
An official note from the chief minister’s office (CMO) said the cabinet decided that a legislation on making English medium compulsory in all the government schools be enacted in the forthcoming budget session of the state assembly, likely to be held next month.
The chief minister constituted a cabinet sub-committee headed by state education minister Sabita Indra Reddy to study the proposal on English medium and work out the modalities on its implementation.
The sub-committee would comprise other cabinet colleagues including K T Rama Rao, Koppula Eshwar, Talasani Srinivasa Yadav, S Niranjan Reddy, V Srinivas Goud, G Jagadish Reddy, T Harish Rao, Prashant Reddy, Puvvada Ajay Kumar and Errabelli Dayakar Rao.
The sub-committee would go into the legalities of the move, before finalising the draft legislation. It would be discussed in the next cabinet meeting before being introduced in the state assembly.
In January 2020, the Andhra Pradesh government headed by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy also enacted a similar legislation introducing English medium in all the government schools in a phased manner. However, the law was struck down by the state high court in April 2020.
The Jagan government moved the Supreme Court in the same month, challenging the high court order, but the apex court refused to grant a stay. The matter is still pending in the Supreme Court.
The Telangana cabinet also decided to enact yet another legislation to regulate fixation of tuition fees in schools and colleges in the state. The cabinet sub-committee headed by the education minister would also study this issue and finalise the draft legislation.
The cabinet also approved another scheme “Mana Ooru-Mana Badi,” aimed at enhancing the quality of education and improve the basic infrastructure in the government schools. The scheme would be implemented at a cost of ₹7,289 crore in the next one year.
The cabinet approved the proposals for setting up an exclusive university for women and also a “forest university” in the state. The chief minister asked chief secretary Somesh Kumar and also the forest department authorities to come up with detailed project reports on the two universities and submit the same to the next cabinet.
The cabinet discussed the ongoing procurement of paddy cultivated during the Kharif season. The officials told the cabinet that the procurement exercise was more or less completed, but since paddy was still being harvested in some places, the cabinet directed that the procurement centres be continued till the entire quantity of paddy is procured.
