Telangana: Telugu medium takes a hit as students switch to English at UG level

Efforts of the Telangana government to promote English medium in state-run schools and colleges seems to be bearing fruit. Telugu as a medium of instruction is slowly losing ground.

While enrolment in government schools after the introduction of English medium has gone up, more than 90 per cent of students who enrolled for UG courses for the 2023-24 academic year in the state preferred English as the medium of instruction.

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More students choose English

As per data released for the first phase of admissions under DOST (Degree Online Service Telangana), 93.55 per cent of students opted for English medium, showing an increase of 2.66 per cent over previous year’s 90.89 per cent.

And as few as 5.77 per cent students chose Telugu as the medium of instruction. The reason is flexibility offered by the government to write the exam in Telugu if the student feels that she is not comfortable in English in a particular paper.

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In order to enhance the employability of UG students, the state government is promoting English as a medium instruction from primary level to UG course. The strength in Telugu medium institutions at UG level has fallen by 2.49 per cent from last year’s 8.26 per cent.

“Employment opportunities in Hyderabad are growing in the private sector where functional knowledge in English is a prerequisite. So, students are switching to English medium in UG courses except in a few rural colleges,” said G Bhagya, an associate professor from MG University College, Nalgonda.

Low UG enrolment rate still a concern

DOST is a unified online admission platform for undergraduate courses in degree colleges affiliated with government universities across the state. Students can register for UG courses such as BA, B.Sc, B.Com, B.Com Vocational, BBA, BBM, BSW etc. either through Aadhaar linked mobile number or by downloading T-App Folio or at MeeSeva Centres.

The first phase of enrolment process commenced on May 16 and concluded on June 10.  The seat allotment was announced on June 16. As usual the response for the UG courses was lukewarm. Now the enrollment has commenced for the second phase. The whole process of admissions is expected to end by July 15.

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The state has as many as 3,56,258 seats in 889 colleges, including Gurukul colleges. But in the first phase only 1,05,935 students enrolled on DOST and 73,220 students who were eligible were allotted seats in various colleges. As many as 2.83,038 seats (79.45 per cent) are vacant.

Navin Mittal, commissioner Collegiate and Technical Education and Prof Limbadri, chairman, Telangana State Higher Education Council (TSHEC), while releasing the data, hoped that after the EAMCET counselling and announcement of Intermediate supplementary exam results more students would apply in the next phases of DOST.

Though various new combinations of subjects are being offered from the academic year 2023-2024, Commerce remains the most preferred group in the state.

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According to Prof. Limbadri, a whopping 33,251 students (45.41 per cent) had opted for Commerce which is far higher than any combination of subjects. Arts group that comprises the subjects of history, economics and political science is the least preferred one with just 7,771 (10.61 per cent) students opting for it. Data science with as few as 1,955 students is way down, and just above D Pharmacy which attracted a mere 254 students in the first phase. As for Life Sciences, 16,434 (22.44 per cent) students showed interest while 13,468 (18.39 per cent) enrolled for Physical Sciences.

According to a senior lecturer from Government Degree College Khammam, rural degree colleges are facing the admission problem especially for science groups.

“All major colleges located at erstwhile district headquarters are most preferred institutes for students. Getting admission to these colleges is impossible unless one has high percentage marks at the intermediate level. Every science student invariably gives preference to English medium. The Telugu medium has almost disappeared from science groups. As of now very students of arts groups are opting for Telugu medium. Very soon, they are expected to switch over to English medium,” he said.

Also read: Preference of English medium instruction rises in South India except Karnataka

Venkateswarlu hoped that the enrolment will pick up in the two rounds of DOST.