Hyderabad: Speaking on the occasion of Dr. Sheela Raj Memorial Lecture, Professor A. Satyanarayana enlightened the gathering about the contributions, the seventh Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, made towards primary education in Hyderabad, emphasizing that it was first introduced during the Nizam era by Mir Osman Ali Khan.
Satyanarayan who is also the former head of History Department, OU, said the primary education was introduced for children of age 5 – 14 which was strictly implemented and the children were supposed to attend State schools.
He said the seventh Nizam had allotted huge amounts of funds towards primary education. “Mir Osman Ali Khan believed that strengthening of primary education would boost higher education and hence had increased the funds for primary, secondary and high schools”.
Calling attention to the contributions of the sixth Nizam, Mir Mehboob Ali Khan, belonging to the Asaf Jahi dynasty, he said, the sixth Nizam was very supportively of establishing English medium schools and the Christian Missionaries where assigned the job.
“At the same time, he also extended support to all those who were willing to start Telugu, Kannada and Marathi medium schools. Both western and non-western education was promoted during his rule and the same was taken forward by the seventh Nizam” Professor added.
Dr. Zareena Parveen, Director State Archives and Research Institute Telangana who was also present at the seminar spoke about the seventh Nizam’s contribution to establishing the University.
Urdu was officially declared as State’s language in 1884 since most of the population spoke the language back then.