By Express News Service
VIJAYAWADA: With more and more students preferring English medium instruction at municipal schools in the State, the very survival of Telugu medium schools is at stake. In the last academic year, Telugu medium courses were offered at over 700 civic schools out of the total 2,118 in the State. Textbooks were available for Telugu medium students two months after the commencement of the academic year. The same situation is likely to prevail this academic year too.
According to sources, headmasters of most of the schools forced students to opt for English medium instruction. The same trend may continue this year as well.
Meanwhile, officials of municipal schools say that there may be a delay in the supply of textbooks for Telugu medium students as the number of students who choose Telugu medium is yet to be finalised.
Indents for Telugu medium textbooks are yet to be placed by the Municipal Administration Department.
“We have asked the officials to supply Telugu medium textbooks for Class 10 students as their syllabus has to be completed fast. Earlier, due to the delay in supply of textbooks, some students managed to get hold of old textbooks. This year, it is yet to be confirmed whether students would choose Telugu medium at all. If there are students who prefer Telugu medium, textbooks have to be supplied for them,” said M Gracemma, headmistress of a municipal school.
In the academic year 2017-18, only Telugu medium instruction was offered for Class 10 students while for students of Classes 1 to 9, the instruction was only in English medium. If Telugu medium were to be made mandatory for Class 10 students this year too, some students would be in a disadvantageous position as they would have completed Class 9 in English medium last year. If English medium instruction is introduced in Class 10, there would be no problem.
Sai Pujitha, a student of a municipal high school, says, “I changed to English medium in Class 9 last year. I failed to score well as I had studied in Telugu medium from Class 1 to 8. I only hope that my performance in Class 10 is not affected in the public examinations.”
