Schools in Karnataka to have Kannada as mandatory subject

The Karnataka legislative assembly passed a bill on Tuesday, to make Kannada, the primary medium of instruction in all government as well as aided schools upto Class 5.

The assembly also passed a legislation that makes Kannada a mandatory subject for students in classes 1 to 10 even in educational institutions where the Kannada is not a compulsory subject.

There are 54,000 schools in Karnataka, out of which 1,700 have expressed their doubts about Kannada as a medium of instruction.

The Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, previously had a clause that mandated the government to give primary education in a medium that is "as far as possible in mother tongue or Kannada" .

The Right to Free and Compulsory Education (Karnataka Amendment), 2015, amended this clause by removing the words 'as far as possible'.

The Kannada Language Learning Bill was also passed to make Kannada a compulsory language to be taught to children studying in the first standard till Class 10.

A national daily reported that Aravind Bellad from the BJP made a suggestion for the state to adopt a dual-language policy like northern India where social sciences are taught in the mother tongue and mathematics and science in the English language.

The daily also reported that the former Education Minister Visveshwar Hegde Kageri said that previous isolated attempts such as this have been made by the state and have failed. The CM should talk to the PM about the same, he was reported saying.