The Telangana government aims to make Telugu a compulsory subject up to class 10 for all students across various boards. However, implementation challenges arise due to the need for subject codes from boards like CBSE.

HYDERABAD: The state might want Telugu as a compulsory subject until class 10 for all students irrespective of boards, but implementing the same will not be a cakewalk as the Telangana govt will have to get various boards – CBSE, ICSE, IB, among others, to list compulsory Telugu as one of the subjects and allot a subject code so that students can opt for it and appear for board examinations.
Academicians pointed out that without any circular from respective boards, this initiative by the Telangana govt will remain only on paper. “For students to appear for an exam, schools will have to submit a List of Candidates (LOC) so that they can opt for a subject. Unless CBSE recognises and issues a code, a student will not be able to appear for the exam,” said S Narsimha Reddy, Hyderabad Public School, Principal, Ramanthapur. He said that this is exactly why almost all schools have been conducting compulsory Telugu exams for students until class 9 at the school level, and the same can be extended to class 10 as well, but not as a board exam.
As of now, CBSE has two codes for the Telugu language – 007 for Telugu and 089 for Telugu-Telangana. The Telangana govt first came out with this proposal in 2018. A few years later, in 2022, it even issued an order saying Telugu will be made compulsory for all students until class 10 irrespective of boards. However, it has been giving exemptions for class 10 students every year since then, so the diktat was implemented, as a formality, in most of the schools until class 9 only. Students are just made to write an exam in the Telugu subject and not taught the subject in seriousness as these marks are not counted in the overall performance.
On Tuesday, the Director of School Education issued a memo stating that the Vennela textbook, which is simple Telugu, will replace Singidi, which is of a comparatively high standard, for subject code 089, in the CBSE subject list for class 9 students from the academic year 2025-26 and class 10 from 2026-27.
“The problem here is they need another subject code for compulsory Telugu. However, boards are not inclined to give a new code.
This is the reason why it is not implemented since 2022. Also, students can’t be forced to take it as a primary language. So, there is no clarity on how the govt is planning to take this forward,” said a principal of one of the top schools on condition of anonymity, adding that the board also can’t make only students of Telangana write for extra 100 marks even if the state wants compulsory Telugu as the sixth subject.
The principals of CBSE schools will be meeting officials of the State Council of Educational Research and Training Telangana to understand the way forward in the first week of March. Parents, meanwhile, questioned the move and said that a global city like Hyderabad should not be bringing in such rules as they can be a deterrent for many parents. “The state should not force someone to study a language. They can encourage but not make it compulsory as students from various states are studying here,” said Mukesh Agarwal, whose children are in class 9 and class 5.
Officials from the school education department, on the other hand, said that the memo released was just an extension of orders released in 2022. “We are aware that there are some practical problems in implementing it and that is why we have been giving exemptions for class 10 students every year since 2022. We will work with the boards and see that this gets implemented,” an official said.