The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : New way to beat order on medium of instruction

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 29, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

New way to beat order on medium of instruction

B.S. Ramesh

Many errant primary schools opt for CBSE and ISCE courses

BANGALORE: Scores of primary schools in the State, which have been forced to toe the Government line on medium of instruction, have found a new way to beat the system.

More than 100 primary schools have opted for Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Indian School Certificate Examinations (ISCE) courses. Sources told The Hindu on Saturday that 150 schools had obtained a no-objection cert ificate (NoC) from the Education Department for opting for either CBSE or ISCE syllabus by paying a fee of Rs. 1 lakh.

The sources said the first step towards obtaining affiliation from either CBSE or ISCE was to get from the State Government a no objection certificate. With the no objection certificate, these institutions had commenced classes saying that they were CBSE\ISCE schools.

The Education Department found that almost all such schools, had, at the time of applying for recognition, given an undertaking to teach in Kannada or the medium in which they would be allowed to do so. The department found that many primary schools had violated the undertaking and were teaching in English.

It had come down heavily on such schools and withdrew recognition. It had also asked them to opt for the voluntary scheme under which they would have to pay a penalty for obtaining re-recognition and also undertake to teach in the medium in which they had been granted recognition initially.

A large number of primary schools had moved the High Court against the Government action. The High Court backed the Government and asked the schools to fall in line with the State’s policy. The court had also set a deadline of July 18 for the schools to file affidavits in court to abide by the policy on medium of instruction.

Even as the petitions by the schools were pending before the High Court, several institutions approached the State Government for NoC to opt for CBSE or ISCE syllabus. Having obtained the NoC, these schools and other institutions which had obtained similar NoCs earlier have begun teaching in English.

The argument of these schools is that the NoC is enough for them to teach in English and there is no need for them to abide by the State’s policy on medium of instruction. They said that both CBSE and ISCE syllabus mandated them to teach in English and not in Kannada.

The Government, however, debunked this contention, stating that the CBSE and ISCE affiliation would come in only at the secondary school level and not at the primary school stage. It said the State’s syllabus and policy on medium of instruction would prevail at the primary school level. Since many of these ISCE and CBSE schools had not obtained affiliation from the respective boards, they were derecognised institutions.

Advocates representing the Government in the High Court said that the NoC was only a certificate for the institution to schools to apply for affiliation to CBSE or ISCE syllabus. Government advocate B. Manohar said unless these institutions obtained recognition or affiliation from CBSE or ISCE, they would continue to be governed by the State Government rules.

Mr. Manohar said schools going in for Central syllabus should start the process of affiliation from sixth standard and not earlier. Moreover, the Central boards had prescribed syllabus only for secondary schools and not for primary classes.

Mr. Manohar and other legal experts said that the State could not take any action against such schools as several of them had petitioned the High Court against the order of de-recognition. They said action could be initiated only after the cases were disposed of. Until then, these schools could continue classes in English and teach students CBSE or ISCE syllabus.

On its part, the Government said that it was determined to ensure that these schools too followed its medium of instruction policy for primary schools. The Government said that it had no objection to schools going in for CBSE or ISCE syllabus at the secondary-level.

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