A majority of the parents of children going to the government schools in the State have voted in favour of English as medium of instruction, according to an official statement issued on Thursday.
The statement said 96.17 % of the parents have opted for English as a medium of instruction for their children. As part of reforms in the education sector, the Jagan Mohan Reddy government announced its decision to introduce English as a medium of instructs in all government schools in the State from the new academic year in an attempt to “provide equal access to quality education for all children”.
HC observation
Following the observation made by the High Court that the choice of the medium of instruction for primary school children should be left to the parents, the government decided to elicit parents’ opinion on the same.
A format prepared by the Department of School Education was circulated among the parents by village and ward volunteers. It comprised three options — English medium with Telugu as a compulsory subject, Telugu medium and ‘other medium,’ and the parents had to tick their option and append their signature on the forms.
The statement said according to the data collected till April 29, of the total strength of 17,87,035 students in 1 to 5 classes, parents of 17,85,669 students made known their preferences. Of them, 96.17% chose English medium, 3.05 % opted for Telugu medium and 0.78 % opted for other language medium.
