Telangana government orders Telugu as compulsory subject in schools

HYDERABAD: The Telangana government on Wednesday issued an order implementing Telugu as a compulsory subject in CBSE, ICSE, IB, and other Board-affiliated schools in Telangana.

The order states, “Replacement of SINGIDI (Standard Telugu) with VENNELA (Simple Telugu) with code (089) as per the CBSE subject list (Language Group -L) for Class IX from the A.Y. 2025-26 & for the X class from the A.Y. 2026-2027”.

It further reads that the Director of School Education, Telangana, Hyderabad, is requested to take necessary action in the matter, accordingly.

The Telangana Government issued an order implementing Telugu as a compulsory subject in CBSE, ICSE, IB, and other Board-affiliated schools in Telangana. pic.twitter.com/VAajdyQmTt

— ANI (@ANI) February 26, 2025

Notably, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Tuesday proposed a major reform in the Class 10 examination system, introducing two board exams from the 2025-26 academic session. This move aligns with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and aims to reduce academic pressure by offering students a chance to improve their scores.

The proposal was discussed in a high-level meeting at the Ministry of Education, chaired by the Union Minister of Education. A draft policy released on Tuesday has been developed and uploaded on the CBSE website (https://www.cbse.gov.in), inviting feedback from schools, teachers, parents, and students until March 9, 2025.

As per the draft policy, the first phase of exams is scheduled from February 17 to March 6, while the second phase will be conducted from May 5 to May 20. In 2026, about 26.60 lakh Class 10 students and 20 lakh Class 12 students are expected to take the exams.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, last Friday, strongly criticized Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin’s letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of raising “imaginary concerns” driven by political motivations.

Addressing a press conference, Pradhan emphasized that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is not imposing any language on a state.He emphasized that the primary essence of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is to bring global standards to education, and simultaneously, it has to be rooted in India.

“Tamil Nadu is losing Rs 5000 crore by not implementing PM Shri schools which is focused on scientific education, teaching methods in Tamil language because NEP is being emphasized to teaching in mother tongue up to Class 8”, he added. (ANI)