Gujarati will be compulsory in state schools from next year

The Gujarat government has made Gujarati as teaching subject compulsory in all the schools affiliated with all the boards. The education minister made this announcement on Tuesday in Gujarat assembly under the rule 44. As per the announcement the language will be a compulsory subject for all students and the subject will be introduced in standard 1 and 2 from next academic year starting from June onwards.

The education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said, "This is the decision taken by CM Vijay Rupani to keep the future generations connected with the cultural roots of this state through the medium of language. As per the Kothari commission recommendations, the first langugate should be the mother tongue in the schools but many of schools which offers curriculum in languages other than Gujarat do not teach the vernacular language to their students and as a result, they cannot communicate in their mother tongue."

"We intend to make the Gujarati language compulsory in primary section that is standard 1 to 8 but to avoid inconvenience to students, we are going to introduce the language as the compulsory subject in standard 1 and 2 only. Thereafter the subject will be introduced in the higher standard year by year."

Many members in-house participated in the debate over this announcement. The deputy leader of opposition Shailesh Parmar said, "The government wish to introduce Gujarati as compulsory subject in schools and it is welcomed step but the government also should look at the results of the final board exams. As per the latest records of last three years of board results, maximum students failed in Gujarati subject."