Moving a step ahead with respect to enforcing teaching of Kannada in schools, the Assembly on Tuesday adopted two Bills, including the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Karnataka Amendment) Bill 2015, which seeks to provide primary education (standard I to V) in the child’s mother tongue or in Kannada. However, the Bill needs Presidential assent to become law.
Both the Bills were adopted unanimously after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah assured the House of taking a delegation of floor leaders from all parties in the State legislature to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to impress upon him the need to effect a Constitutional amendment to enforce Kannada as medium of instruction for primary education.
“I will raise the issue at the meeting of the National Development Council to be convened by the Prime Minister,” the Chief Minister said, adding that he had written to all the Chief Ministers seeking their co-operation in the matter. Earlier, members urged Mr. Siddaramaiah to take a lead in building consensus among Chief Ministers of all States to take the issue forward.
CBSE, ICSE kept out of Kannada Bill’s ambit
Piloting the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Karnataka Amendment) Bill 2015, Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education Kimmane Ratnakar said it was brought in the wake of the State’s language policy being turned down by the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court.
The Minister maintained that the policy had been turned down as it had been brought through a government notification instead of legislation.
The Assembly also adopted the Kannada Language Learning Bill 2015 that seeks to make it mandatory for students in classes 1 to 10 in “all schools” in the State to be taught Kannada as one of the compulsory languages, in a phased manner from 2015-16.
Mr. Ratnakar clarified that the government was leaving schools affiliated to CBSE and ICSE out of the ambit of this Bill at present. However, there are only 700 such schools, he said. The Kannada medium Bill needs Presidential assent.
(A wrong picture used with this article has been replaced)