The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : There is no bar on a child to learn English: State

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Saturday, Aug 02, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

There is no bar on a child to learn English: State

Staff Reporter

‘Schools bound by undertaking given to Education Department’

‘Besides Kannada, seven languages recognised as medium of instruction’
‘English-medium schools not approved after the 1994 policy’

BANGALORE: The State Government on Friday informed the Karnataka High Court that it is wrong to say that the State had only made Kannada the medium of instruction at the primary school level.

The State said apart from Kannada, seven other languages — Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Urdu, Hindi and English — have been recognised as a medium of instruction.

A child, it said, could opt for the medium of instruction of its mother tongue. There was no bar on a child to learn English if it is the mother tongue of the child.

It said several primary schools had challenged the State policy saying that the State did not have the right to prescribe Kannada as the medium of instruction.

The Government clarified that it had not approved any English-medium schools after the 1994 language policy. It said only schools that had given an undertaking to teach in the medium of instruction were allowed to operate in that particular medium.

It also said that private unaided primary schools could not at this point of time switch to a new medium of instruction (to teach students).

The State said the schools are bound by the undertaking they had given to the Education Department or affidavits they had filed before the High Court promising to teach in the medium of instruction in which they had been permitted to open.

The Government advocate made the submission when the court was hearing petitions by more than 40 schools seeking permission to withdraw the undertaking they had given promising to abide by the State policy on the medium of instruction.

Good Samaritan Education Society, LG National Public School and several other institutions filed an interlocutory application (IA) seeking the permission of the court to withdraw the undertaking they had furnished (to the State when they had started the school) and permit them to teach in English medium.

The petitioners said the July 2, 2008 Full Bench judgment of the Karnataka High Court had quashed the State policy on medium of instruction and also the language policy.

They said as the Full Bench had quashed the language policy, they were now free to impart education in the medium of instruction which a child or its parent wanted.

Justice Huluvadi G. Ramesh adjourned the case to Wednesday.

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