Schools may have to cough up just ₹500 for not teaching Kannada

DPI is set to crack down on institutions that have not implemented Kannada rule

The rule: All schools, including Central board schools, have to teach Kannada as first or second language under the Kannada Language Learning Act, 2015.

Almost three months after it was made mandatory for all schools, including Central board schools, to teach Kannada as first or second language under the Kannada Language Learning Act, 2015, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) is set to crack down on institutions that have not implemented the rule.

Experts, however, have pointed out a major hurdle in ensuring compliance: Schools have to cough up a penalty of only ₹500 if they have not started teaching Kannada as the first or the second language.

According to rules framed under the Act, all schools, including those affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), once proved guilty of violating the norms, should be punished with a fine which may extend up to ₹500. If the offence is a continuing one, they have to pay a daily fine that is “not exceeding ₹100 during the period of contravention of the Act or the rules.”

Inspections

In a circular issued last week, the DPI said as per the Act, all schools have to mandatorily teach Kannada as the first or second language for class one students for the 2017–18 academic year. It has also said that the rule should be implemented phase wise up to class 10 in the coming years. The department has also formed a supervision committee that will inspect and penalise schools that are not teaching Kannada.

It has asked the jurisdictional education officers to ensure that these schools teach Kannada from the 2018–19 academic year for classes one and two. It has asked all schools to submit the number of Kannada books they would require for this purpose and provide this information in the Student Achievement Tracking System (SATS) so that the data could be sent to the Karnataka Textbook Society, which will provide textbooks.

Demand to amend rules

Kannada activists and experts are now demanding that the rules should be amended and a more stringent penalty imposed so that schools fall in line.

Writer Baragur Ramachandrappa said, “The recognition of schools needs to be withdrawn. The department is not asking them to impart education in Kannada. It is only asking them to teach Kannada as a language and this is the least that private school managements can do.”

He, however, said there was a need for the department to hold a dialogue with private school managements and convince them to teach Kannada.

President of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat Manu Baligar said the State government should impose a more stringent penalty that can extend up to ₹25,000 so that schools fall in line.

Department officials, however, said that schools would fall in line “despite the meagre fine” as they will not want to be blacklisted by the department.

M. Srinivasan, president of the Managements of Independent CBSE Schools’ Association, said, “We are getting ready to take the legal route and want to ask the High Court to leave the choice to parents and students. A language policy which has got the President’s nod states that CBSE schools should teach Hindi as the second language. English is the first language. The State government has asked us to teach Kannada as the first or second language. So, it puts us in a quandary and forces us to violate rules framed by either the State or the Central government.”

Sujatha K.V., a parent, said, “Many schools are in a fix as to how they should accommodate Kannada. CBSE schools are supposed to teach two languages from classes one to four but since November 2017 they are teaching three languages. In fact, some schools are terming both Hindi and Kannada as the second language.”