Speakers stress importance of Telugu

Hyderabad, Dec 29 (UNI) Speakers at the 'Telugu language awareness' conference have stressed on the need for promoting Telugu as a mother tongue in a big way for the benefit of future generations.

International language scientist Prof B Krishna Murthy, in his address, underlined the importance of the Telugu language, which is around 3000 years old.

He said because of the present education policy, the importance of Telugu has declined. In developed countries, the medium of education is only in the mother tongue he said, adding, the language of instruction should be the mother tongue upto the primary level and from standard six, one or two subjects should be taught in English.

Vice-Chancellor of the Potti Sriramulu Telugu University Dr A Manjulatha said the University has taken up several programmes to promote Telugu in association with the Telugu Associaton of North America (TANA). She said the University prepares Telugu lessons to help children settled in America.

The University had sent a proposal to the Government to recognise Telugu as an ancient language and had collected 60,000 signatures from various people in this regard.

TANA President B Ramayya said with a view to promote Telugu, they had been conducting several programmes in America for Telugu-speaking families. Several universities in America have introduced subjects in Telugu for the benefit of these people.

The conference was organised by TANA in association with Potti Sriramulu University and the AP Official Language Commission.

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