Andhra Pradesh Education Minister Adimulapu Suresh on Monday said that the state government's decision of introducing English medium in all government schools is for the benefit of poor people who cannot afford private education.
He also alleged that certain groups with malicious intentions are making false propaganda that this decision is to promote religious conversions.
"The government will take legal action on such groups and will not spare any attempts of a smear campaign to malign the government", he added.
Andhra Pradesh YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had earlier taken the decision of introducing English medium in all government schools in the state.
There is Right to Education in the country and now Jagan government has upgraded it to Right to English Education, Suresh said.
"The employment opportunities are drastically changing and after 20 years, there will be altogether different kinds of jobs. In order to compete in the global employment or career opportunities, one has to be prolific in English medium. Our government wants to provide that opportunity to the students from poor and marginal background," Suresh said.
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"As of now English medium education is available only to 39 per cent of STs, 49 per cent of SCs and 62 per cent of minorities in Andhra Pradesh. Most of them are studying in Government schools only. They need to be given education in English medium. There are more than 6,000 English medium schools in the state. All corporate schools and colleges are providing English medium education only; and collecting exorbitant fees. A student should not be deprived of English medium education due to his poverty. For the same, our government is introducing English medium in all government schools from Class 1 to Class 6, from next academic year," Suresh said.
The state Minister further highlighted that there are challenges ahead in implementing English medium in government schools.
"At first, we have to train up almost 68,000 teachers for teaching in English. For that the government is considering to make MoUs with premier institutes like IFLU," Suresh said.