Spoken English will be taught from primary classes in the proposed “government model schools,” a new project announced in the recently tabled State Budget, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education B.C. Nagesh said.
Participating in a round table conference organised by Kannada Sahitya Parishat on Kannada schools in the city on Tuesday, Mr. Nagesh also said the State Government had already begun experimenting with bilingual textbooks in Kannada and English at English-medium schools run by the State, and it was an experiment worth considering to be expanded.
Mr. Nagesh said several Kannada reforms taken up by successive Governments had suffered setbacks due to multiple court orders. “We are also deeply concerned about the dwindling number of students in Kannada schools. The recent experiment of Karnataka Public Schools has been a success because it has an English medium of education. We need to work together to stem this tide,” he said.
He also responded positively to another suggestion by well-known Kannada writer S.L. Bhyrappa of earmarking ₹200 crore every year to provide around ₹3,000 aid to students studying in Kannada medium.
“The scholarship/aid was first conceptualised when D.V. Sadananda Gowda was the Chief Minister, but was never implemented after he demitted office. Now that there is a BJP Government again, it is worth reviving it,” Mr. Bhyrappa said.
The writer also suggested that the State move towards a bilingual medium of instruction — in Kannada and English — to resolve the impasse over medium of instruction in education in the State.
Parents are concerned that Kannada medium education will hamper their children’s prospects at technical education, which is a genuine concern. The only way to resolve this is to increasingly move towards a bilingual medium of instruction, he said.
“While teaching in primary classes has to be in Kannada alone, we need to introduce English as a language in middle school and teachers need to teach in both Kannada and English. Students need to be told amlajanaka is called oxygen and vice versa. We need to teach English medium students in Kannada as well. Students need to be given a choice to write exams in the language of their choice. I would bet most of them will write in Kannada,” he said, arguing that by this kind of experimentation, we could break the exclusivity of the medium of instruction.
Mahesh Joshi, president of the parishat, which organised the round table conference, said the revival of Kannada schools was crucial to “Kannada-Kannadiga-Karnataka” and demanded that the State Government bring in two urgent reforms — all Government officials have to send their wards to Kannada schools and all exams in the State have to be in Kannada alone, while there must be an option to write all national exams in Kannada.
Veerabhadra Chennamalla Swami of the Nidumamidi Mutt said even CET and other entrance tests in the State must be held in Kannada and demanded reservation for Kannadigas in jobs in the State, even in the private sector.
