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Andhra Pradesh: The Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) has said that degree colleges should offer courses only in English medium from the academic year 2021-22. The state government has decided to make English medium compulsory across all government, private aided and unaided degree colleges. As per Education Minister Audimulapu Suresh, the introduction of English medium education at the undergraduate level would enhance the career prospects of graduates.
Official Data
The state government informed that out of 65,981 Telugu medium students, 24,007, 16,925, and 24,960 have enrolled themselves in BA, B.com, and BSc courses respectively and English medium education is ‘’bound to immensely benefit‘’ these students. According to the Higher Education Department of Andhra Pradesh, out of over 2.62 lakh students who have taken admissions into degree colleges across the state, only 65,981 students are admitted into Telugu medium background during 2020-21.
Reasons To Introduce English
The decision to make English the language of instruction is bound to immensely benefit these students as well. Also, the fact that most companies have started to prefer multilingual candidates and the emphasis on English, it is essential that the students pursue their undergraduate (UG) degree in English medium. Other reasons that the Education Department considered before making English medium compulsory are public sector recruitment process held through UPSC, APPSC, SSC, BSRB also test the language proficiency. As the 4th year of the UG curriculum is research-orientation, it would be difficult to pursue quality work in PhD if the UG is studied in Telugu medium.
Life skills introduced in Degree Colleges
The Department of Higher Education has also introduced life skill courses like personality development and leadership and human values, and Professional Ethics. Every student should mandatorily select at least one life skill course in the first two semesters and two in the third. The statement further said that the curriculum in degree colleges has been thoroughly revised with effect from 2020-21 with a mandatory internship for 10 months. 30% of the revised curriculum consists of skilled-oriented programs. The department is also developing spoken English courses at levels 1, 2, and 3.