Ever since the YSR Congress government led by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy decided to introduce English medium in the government schools, the opposition leaders including Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan have been raising a lot of hue and cry.
Even Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu has joined the chorus and indirectly criticised the Jagan government’s move on the English medium schools.
He said the education should be taught to students only in their mother tongue.
On Monday, Jagan Mohan Reddy shot back at his critics on the decision to introduce English medium.
He said 33 per cent of the people in the state were still illiterate as per 2011 census.
Though poor people are interested in sending their children to schools, particularly English medium schools so that they can compete with students of other schools, they were facing a lot of challenges, he said.
Poll: Is it wise to introduce English medium in all government schools in AP?
Stating that his government has introduced English as compulsory as medium of instruction only to make the children compete with others across the world, Jagan wondered why some so-called leaders were opposing his move.
“Chandrababu Naidu, Venkaiah Naidu, Pawan Kalyan and others – everybody criticised me. Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy have been writing stories against my decision every day. They all should question themselves as to whether they are right or not,” he said.
Jagan sought to know which medium Chandrababu Naidu’s son (Lokesh) had studied in his schooling and which medium school his grandson was going to join shortly.
“Mr Venkaiah Naidu, in which medium did you children and grand children study? And Mr Pawan Kalyan, the actor! You have three wives and you might be having four or five children. Tell me, what medium of instruction they are studying in?” he asked.
The chief minister asserted that the people of Andhra had suffered a lot for not studying in English medium.
“That is why, we have taken this decision. Every school will have an English lab from this year and from next year, all the government schools will have only English medium. However, Telugu or Urdu will be a compulsory subject in those schools,” he said.
