Karnataka nips English in the bud

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Karnataka nips English in the bud


CRACKDOWN: India's IT state may derecognise 1,500 primary schools for
switching over to English medium.

Bangalore: India's IT state is out to boycott English! Or at least that
seems to be the policy of the state government vis-a-vis the primary
schools. The Karnataka Government is considering de-recognition of over a
thousand primary schools for switching over to English from Kannada
language as their medium of instruction. The government has already issued
notices to 1,416 primary schools across the state for violating the
language policy.

According to Basavaraj Horatti, Minister for Primary and Secondary
Education, this is a violation of the state language policy. "These
schools had taken permission to teach in Kannada medium, but had been
offering education in English medium. This is a clear violation of the
language policy as well as the direction of the Supreme Court on the use
of mother-tongue," he says. The Ministry of Primary and Secondary
Education handed out the notices to the schools after its officials
carried out inspections on the medium being followed. The minister says
the government would not hesitate to withdraw the recognition granted to
these schools.


This is the latest move by the state government which has been carrying
out a continuous tirade against English medium schools all over the
states. Recently, 13 private schools in Mysore faced the wrath of the
government for the same reason. The schools were given a week to withdraw
classes being conducted in English medium. The authorities said the
schools were given permission to conduct classes in Kannada medium, but
they were all running classes in English medium. District-level education
officers have been conducting inspections and teams have been formed to
identify schools, which conduct classes in English medium.

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/karnataka-nips-english-in-the-bud/20307-3.html

   **************************************************************************

N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of
the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a
message are encouraged to post a rebuttal.

   **************************************************************************