The Andhra Pradesh government's decision to scrap Telugu in all municipal schools has stirred up a hornet's nest with a section of parents and educationists, as well as the opposition parties coming against it.
The Chandrababu Naidu government on January 2 issued a GO, No. 14 for converting all the existing Telugu medium municipal schools into English medium schools with immediate effect.
"The move to convert Telugu medium government schools into English medium schools will be a total disaster," says Shravan Kumar, an advocate with the Supreme Court. "There is a general perception that you can get jobs only if you know English, and that is one of the reasons for the growth in the number of private schools," he adds.
After allegations were raised that there were not enough trained teachers in government schools to take on a decision of this kind, Naidu had said that he would bring about amendments to the GO No. 14, scrapping Telugu medium. Teachers unions are up in arms as the decision came in the middle of the academic year.
"The government schools do not have too many students because of the lack of teachers and their accountability," says Shravan Kumar. He adds, "If there are no private schools, the government schools and the English medium might actually be a big success."
Apparently, there was a previous GO which was issued in 2016, where it stated that in places like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, English was the medium of education including the local languages of the particular place. While this would have been the perfect GO which laid an emphasis on English in schools, the GO No. 14 scrapping the local language totally, shocked all and sundry. TIt would affect 2,51,774 students in 2,118 municipal schools across the state.
Neighbouring Telangana has somehow managed this transition successfully, but there the system was implemented only in model schools. Parents and village committees were also consulted before the decision.
In Andhra, considering the fact that there is already a complaint against government schools regarding attendance of teachers and lack of teachers as well as students, many people think that this decision, which comes in the middle of academic year and ahead of the public examinations, is foolish.
The brain behind the new move is believed to be education minister Ponguru Narayana who has already started foundation courses and coaching classes for teachers and students. During a meeting last year, most of the teachers had suggested that English should be taught from class 5 upwards.
