From this year, Kannada to be first or second language in State board schools

State board schools that are teaching Kannada as the third language will now have to teach it as the first or second language for class 1 in the 2015-16 academic year.

This is one of the provisions of the Kannada Language Learning Act, 2015 that was gazetted last month and passed in the Assembly in April. On Tuesday, officials of the Department of Public Instruction held a meeting to frame rules for the Act.

Although most State board schools are already imparting Kannada as a language, V.P. Niranjan Aradhya, Fellow at the Centre for Child and the Law, National Law School of India University, said that Kannada would get a push particularly in English-medium schools. “Many State board schools are teaching Kannada as the third language, but now they will have to teach it as the first or second language,” he said. To ensure that children who have come from other parts of the State are not affected, the government has taken a decision to introduce the basics only for class 1 this year.

The department has, however, kept Central board schools, including ICSE and CBSE, out of the ambit of the Act this year. Although the State government, while issuing a no-objection certificate which is needed to start a Central board school, states that Kannada should be compulsorily taught as a subject, many schools do not follow this clause.

The department officials too conceded that it is difficult to keep track on the mushrooming CBSE and ICSE schools.

D. Shashi Kumar, general secretary of the Associated Managements’ of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, criticised the government for leaving ICSE and CBSE schools out of the ambit this year.

“Is the government not committed towards safeguarding Kannada in ICSE and CBSE schools? Why the double standards,” he questioned.

Department’s decision to keep Central board schools, including ICSE and CBSE, out of the ambit of the Act this year draws flak