The State government’s promise of ensuring that students studying in classes 1 to 10 in the State shall learn Kannada as one of the languages in a phased manner from the 2015-16 academic year continues to remain only on paper.
Although the State legislature unanimously passed the Kannada Language Learning Act- 2015 last April, the government is yet to frame rules to ensure that the Act is implemented. With no rules framed, Education Department officials say that they are unable to initiate action against private school managements that fail to fall in line.
Officials of the Department of Public Instruction said that almost all the State board schools in the State provide Kannada as one of the three languages taught as students are mandated to opt for Kannada as one of the languages for their SSLC exam. However, Section 3 of the Act mandates that students need to be taught Kannada either as the first or second language.
D. Shashi Kumar, general secretary of the Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said that the majority of the State board schools were implementing Kannada as a language prior to the Act.
He said there was a need to frame rules to ensure Kannada was taught in CBSE and ICSE schools.
While the medium of instruction in majority of the government and aided primary schools is Kannada, many private schools impart education in English. After the State government lost a two-decade old battle in the courts over the medium of instruction, Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education Kimmane Ratnakar had introduced the Bill to ensure that Kannada stayed alive in school classrooms. Mr. Ratnakar had said that while it would be first introduced for State board schools, it would be later extended to CBSE and ICSE schools.
