Telugu to be taught as 2nd language in govt schools

Tribune News Service

Hisar, December 20

The School Education Department is embarking on a mission to teach Telugu to students in government schools as second language.

At present, Punjabi is the second official language.

The twist in the tale is that the students will learn words such as okati (one), rendu (two), moodu (three), naalugu (four), rouju (day), ammamma (grandma) taatayya (grandpa) from Haryana schoolteachers as the Education Department has no Telugu language teacher.

The education officials maintained that the teachers have been asked to first learn Telugu. After that, they will teach it to the students of Class I to X.

The state government took the decision after Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced to have an MoU with the Telangana Government to strengthen cultural ties between the two states under the ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’ programme.

The CM has stated that many people from Telangana work in Faridabad and Gurugram and the language programme is aimed at helping their children learn their mother tongue.

Officials said that to carry forward the agenda, the Education Department has selected 10 to 12 schools in each of the 22 districts where Telugu will be introduced to students.

Surender Kumar, assistant programme coordinator of the Samagra Siksha project in Hisar, said students would not be assessed for marking in the annual examination on Telugu learning. “In the first phase, we are just introducing the alphabets and counting to apprise them about the nuances of this language,” he said.

An education activist, however, maintained that given the pathetic condition of government schools where education seems to have taken a backseat, this is nothing but a joke with the teachers as well as students in Haryana.