“The girls are not sent to college after SSLC mainly because they have to go to Karnataka to take up PUC and degree courses. For want of facilities [here], including a Kannada-medium college, they are either married off or asked to toil in the fields.”
This was how Shamala, a girl student, explained the plight of her kind to S.G. Siddaramaiah, chairman of the Kannada Development Authority, during his visit to Goolyam, a Kannada-speaking border area in Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh, on Thursday evening.
“The Kannada-medium school in our village has completed 103 years. Hundreds of students have studied there. But only 35 have got employment in the Karnataka Education Department. Our students, if they want to pursue higher education, have to go to Karnataka, where they are denied reservation benefits and employment opportunities. If this is the fate of students studying in Kannada medium, why should they study in Kannada?” The locals categorically said the chairman need not visit their village if he is unable to provide facilities for their children.
Mr. Siddaramaiah’s visit came following a plea over phone by a member of the Gadinada Kannada Yuvaka Sangha to the Collector of Kurnool district to close down the Kannada school.
The locals put forth a string of demands to the officials: providing them five per cent reservation in education and employment, free bus passes for students from Gadinad coming to Ballari and other towns to pursue education, fee concession and hostel facilities, among others.
Mr. Siddaramaiah promised to take up their cause with the government and also discuss it with all the parties concerned, including the Education Minister and the chairman of the Karnataka Border Area Development Authority. He also promised to make efforts to establish a college there. “Until then, kindly don’t take any extreme steps and please continue to study in Kannada,” he said.
Siddaram Kalmath, district president of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat, C. Channabasavanna of Lohiya Prakashana, and M. Girijapathi, president of the Anantapur District Kannada Teachers’ Association, were among those present during the official’s visit.
