KDA moots preference for Kannada students

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, JAN. 23. True to their pronouncements, the Chairman and members of the Kannada Development Authority (KDA) have recommended to the Government to accord preference to students who have studied in the Kannada medium from the first to the tenth standards in admissions to professional courses and higher education.

The KDA Chairman, Prof. Baragur Ramachandrappa, and the members have made the recommendation in their report on "Medium of Instruction in the Field of Education" submitted to the Chief Minister, Mr. S.M. Krishna on Monday. The KDA has also favoured preferential treatment to Kannada-medium students in the matter of public employment by reserving some percentage of posts for them.

Both in the report and at a press conference here today, Prof. Ramachandrappa said that he had taken care to go by the judgments of the Supreme Court and the Karnataka High Court while making the various recommendations. Care had been taken to ensure that the insistence on the study of Kannada did not create a burden for any section of students. But he did not explain how the above recommendations would stand the scrutiny of the courts.

The preferential treatment to Kannada-medium students should apply to professional and higher education courses such as BE, MBBS, B.Ed., MA, M.Sc. and M.Com. It should also be extended to the TCH (teachers training certificate higher) and polytechnic courses.

Another important recommendation of the KDA is to make Kannada a part of the curriculum for engineering, medical and dental students from outside the State in the first two semesters. In justification of the recommendation, the KDA has said that foreign students joining universities in non-English speaking countries such as Germany, Japan and Russia had to learn the language of those countries. Kannada or Karnataka students should also study Kannada in those semesters as otherwise the courts would not countenance imbalances in the curriculum.

However, in the case of B.Ed. and TCH courses, the study of Kannada should be made compulsory. The paper in Kannada should carry the same marks allotted to other subjects. At present, Kannada was an optional subject.

The agriculture universities in the State should open Kannada- medium sections. At present, only the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bangalore had a Kannada department.

About the way Kannada is taught at the university level, the KDA has noted that at present the textbooks are based on Kannada literature. Degree-level university students should be taught functional Kannada and it should be one of the subjects in the curriculum.

The KDA has said that Kannada or the mother tongue should be the medium of instruction till the seventh standard (primary school education). It has noted that both the Karnataka Education Act of 1983 and the rules framed under it in 1995 state that primary education covers standards one to seven. It has noted that the Supreme Court had upheld the introduction of Kannada as the medium of instruction up to standard seven in a judgment delivered in December 1993.

Recommending the compulsory study of Kannada by children studying in non-Kannada medium schools from standard three, the KDA has said that there was scope for it under a 1989 judgment of the Karnataka High Court. The judgment said that the study of Kannada could be made compulsory for non-Kannadiga children from the class in which all other children begin to study the second language. From standard three, provision should be made for the study of English as a language (not medium of instruction) for the other children. It has noted that the previous Authority had made the recommendation with regard to English, but had not made studying Kannada and passing the examination compulsory for children in non-Kannada medium schools.

It has also favoured the inclusion of Kannada in the curriculum for professional courses such as LL.B, BCA, BBM and BHM and also in polytechnics, nursing courses and industrial training institutes.

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Section  : Southern States
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