Karnataka nips English in the bud

[Harold F. Schiffman]

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Karnataka nips English in the bud

From: CNN-IBN

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.

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