Gandhinagar: Days after the Gujarat High Court ordered the Gujarat government to introduce a bill in the Gujarat Assembly making the Gujarati language mandatory for the students of classes 1 to 8 in the State, the State Government on Wednesday said that it will introduce the bill in the Assembly on February 28. Earlier the Telangana government made Telugu compulsory in all schools in classes 1 to 10.
Last week during the hearing of a PIL, the bench of Chief Justice Sonia Gokani and Justice Sandeep Bhatt urged the State Government to enact a law making teaching of local languages mandatory in schools.
State Government Spokesperson Minister Rishikesh Patel said on Wednesday that a meeting of the Working Advisory Committee was held during the day and a total of three bills including the one making Gujarati language compulsory in schools will be tabled in the Gujarat Assembly on February 28.
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Patel also said that apart from all state board schools, CBSE and International board schools will also be covered under the proposed bill and the Gujarati language will be taught compulsorily in classes one to eight. If any school denies teaching the Gujarati language then legal action will be taken against the school. He said the provision of financial penalty has been kept for the first two times and if the school is caught repeating the same for the third time, the provision of fine and penalty per day has also been included in the bill.
Educationist Rameshbhai Panchal told ETV Bharat, "the Gujarati language is our mother tongue. To keep the mother tongue alive, teaching Gujarati as a subject must be compulsory in every school in Gujarat and should be taught in a comprehensive manner. Every Gujarati child must be able to read, write and speak Gujarati in a way that makes him proud to be a Gujarati."
