The State government will file a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court challenging the High Court verdict on its plan to introduce English as medium of instruction from classes 1 to 6 in all government schools from the next academic year.
“We are committed to introducing English as part of reforms to uplift the suppressed and oppressed classes. We will leave no stone unturned to fulfil the promise made by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy,” Education Minister Adimulapu Suresh told The Hindu on Wednesday.
An order issued late on Tuesday night said as the court had observed that the freedom of selecting the medium of instruction should be given to the children and their parents rather than some school committees in primary sections, the Department of School Education has undertaken the task of eliciting parents’ choice.
“We had submitted to the court the resolution of nearly 45,000 parents’ committees. Somehow, the court concluded that we did not give a choice to the parents. We want to conduct one more exercise through village volunteers,” said Mr. Suresh.
Model format
The Commissioner of School Education has prepared a model format which will be circulated among parents by the District Education Officers and the Mandal Education Officers through Village Secretariats.
The district Collectors have been asked to instruct village and ward secretariats to elicit the the choice of the parents/guardians by strictly adhering to the protocols prescribed for COVID-19.
Mr. Suresh said there was no reason for people to worry about the fate of Telugu which would continue to be a compulsory subject.
“The government is clear in its plan to set up one Telugu medium school in every mandal headquarters. Students going to these schools will be given transport allowance. We also intend to continue other vernacular medium schools such as Urdu and Tamil,” he said.
“We have made elaborate arrangements for English medium schools such as training the teachers and even printing new books. English medium schools will be a reality from the next academic year,” the Minister said.
“After addressing the parents’ choice issue, the government will file an SPL in the apex court,” he said.
