Assembly passes bill making Gujarati compulsory in schools

GANDHINAGAR: The Gujarat assembly on Tuesday passed a bill to make teaching of Gujarati language compulsory from classes 1 to 8 in all schools of the state, including those affiliated to the CBSE, ICSE and IB boards. The new legislation will be enforced from 2023-24 academic year across the state.
Schools found violating provisions of Gujarat Compulsory Teaching and Learning of Gujarati Language Bill, 2023 will face fines, and the government will direct the "board or institution to disaffiliate the school".
Both opposition parties, Congress and AAP, supported provisions of the bill, which was passed unanimously by the 182-member house in Gandhinagar after education minister Kuber Dindor introduced it. Accordingly, schools that are not teaching Gujarati currently will have to introduce Gujarati as an additional language for classes 1 to 8 in phases from academic year 2023-24.
"Every school shall follow textbooks prescribed by the Gujarat government to teach Gujarati as an additional language. The state government will appoint a deputy director-level officer of the education department as the competent authority to implement the provisions of this bill," Dindor said.
If a school is found violating the provisions for the first time, it will be liable to pay a penalty of Rs 50,000, which will increase to Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh for subsequent violations.
"If a school continues to make contraventions to this act for over one year, the state government may direct the board or institution to disaffiliate the school," the bill said.
Although the Congress supported the bill, its MLAs members slammed the BJP government alleging it "woke up" only after a PIL was filed in the high court recently for the proper implementation of the state government's 2018 notification in this regard.
Congress MLA Amit Chavda said, "I urge the state government to make sure that this bill does not meet the fate of that notification. We hope that you will implement the act strictly," demanding that Gujarati be made a compulsory subject in secondary and higher secondary classes too.
A PIL was filed last October by an NGO seeking the Gujarat HC's direction to the state government ''to ensure the government resolution of 2018 is implemented in its true letter and spirit to introduce Gujarati language as one of the mandatory subjects in primary schools from standard 1 to 8".