Karnataka High Court orders private schools in the State to teach in Kannada

[Harold Schiffman]

Karnataka HC orders private schools in the State to teach in KannadaFrom our
ANI Correspondent

Bangalore <http://www.dailyindia.com/newsc/india/bangalore.php>, June 25:
Karnataka <http://www.dailyindia.com/newsc/india/karnataka.php> High Court
has ordered all private schools in the State to use Kannada as the medium of
education instead of English.
The verdict came in favour of the State Government, which had earlier issued
notices to schools to switch over to Kannada as the medium of instruction in
schools.

The Court has also asked the schools to file an affidavit within seven days
declaring they would discontinue teaching in English and use Kannada as
their medium of instruction. Earlier, the Court had asked schools to file
affidavits declaring they will teach in Kannada from this year.
The directive was opposed by Karnataka Unaided School Management Association
(KUSMA), which appealed in the court against filing of affidavits. KUSMA,
which claims to represent over 1,100 primary schools in the State,
challenged the April 12, 2007 scheme under which the State had levied hefty
penalty on institutions that had been teaching in English.

Other schools had also challenged the notices of de-recognition and the 1994
language policy.
The ban on English as the medium of instruction has been enforced in 2,100
private elementary schools across the State. Out of which 1,440 such schools
are located in Bangalore. Already, the state education department has issued
orders to de-recognise 800 schools for using English as a medium of
instruction and nearly 600 schools in and around Bangalore have been
derecognised for violating this policy.

A 1994 Government order makes it compulsory for all schools recognized by
the Government and started after 1994 to teach in Kannada from the primary
level irrespective of the mother tongue of the child.  After the policy came
into effect the State Government allowed the opening of more than 6,000
schools in 1994 on the condition that the medium of instruction should be
Kannada up to the primary level. This was after the Gokak movement that the
Government issued order that Kannada will be made compulsory from primary
level onwards. The move was to make Kannada more popular and also to ensure
that every student who studies in Karnataka gets to know about Kannada
literature. However, school managements and parents do not agree with the
Government's policy. They allege that the language policy is
"discriminatory" because it allows schools, which started before 1994, to
impart English-medium education.

Though schools set up after 1994 have given an undertaking to follow Kannada
as the medium of instruction, parents demand English-medium education in
schools. With Kannada medium made mandatory, the schools will have to
decline parents who got their children admitted for English medium
education. This will create new problems for the Government as accommodating
these students in English medium schools will be tough, as there are only 8
schools in Bangalore that had sought Government's permission to offer
English medium education prior to 1994.


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