Ilaiah urges teachers’ unions to drop opposition to English medium

The decision to introduce English Medium in government schools from Classes 1 to 6 will ignite the minds of students so much that the State will produce Nobel laureates in the next 20 years, said social activist and director, Center for The Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Moulana Azad National Urdu University, Kancha Ilaiah.

“The introduction of English as a medium of instruction will not herald a silent revolution, but it will kick-start a process which will eliminate social inequalities, gender discrimination,’’ said Prof. Ilaiah during a workshop on “Introduction of English Medium at Primary School level in AP- A social responsibility,’’ held at Acharya Nagarjuna University on Monday.

‘Imran scored over Modi’

He minced no words in batting for English and said Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi chose to speak in Hindi while speaking at the UN General Assembly, while Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan could effectively espouse his country’s position by speaking in English.

He said it was unfortunate that teachers’ unions had been opposing the move citing difficulties in shifting to English medium and wanted them to tell teachers to work a bit harder.

Vice-Chancellor Rajasekhar Patteti welcomed the government’s decision and reminded that most of the southern States, which have a great linguistic tradition, had introduced English as a medium of introduction long time back.

Professor of English, Dravidian University, A. Rajendra Prasad said those opposing English in primary schools were bent upon oppressing the downtrodden communities.

High Court advocate Y. Koteswara Rao, poet Koyi Koteswara Rao, general secretary , DACTA, Kakani Sudhakar and chairman, United Tribal Welfare Union, B. Sama Naik, spoke.

Director of workshop, assistant professor G. Chenna Reddy was present.