Members of the committee formed to formulate Kannada syllabus for postgraduate courses have collectively resigned.
This is in the backdrop of widespread opposition to the proposal of Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan, who is also Minister for Higher Education, to have a uniform syllabus for graduate and postgraduate levels. Several students’ organisations, including the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, and academicians and educationists had opposed the move, calling it “unconstitutional and undemocratic.”
According to a communiqué on Tuesday, members of the committee included noted academicians such as writer Basavaraj Kalgudi, D.V. Parashivamurthy and Nithyananda B. Shetty from Tumakuru University, M.G. Manjunath from University of Mysuru, Shivananda Kelaginamani from Kuvempu University, and Nagabhushan and Shashikala from Bangalore University.
A committee was formed for drafting Kannada syllabus for postgraduate courses by Tumakuru University Vice-Chancellor, the members of which had now resigned.
A member of the committee, who spoke to The Hindu on condition of anonymity, said that uniform syllabus would take away variety and regionality of the languages. “All members held the same opinion. A similar proposal had been putforth a couple of years ago. However, it died down on its own. We do not know why this has been revived now,” the member said and added that the Higher Education Department could instead insist on a uniform calendar of events for all universities in the State.
