Date:22/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/22/stories/2006082210870500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Don't force Kannada on CBSE students, State told

Staff Reporter

Order was passed by the High Court on petitions by students

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Monday directed the State Government not to "compel" the students of ICSE and CBSE syllabi (who had already been exempted from studying Kannada as a language) who had shifted from the Central to the State syllabus to take up Kannada as one of the subjects of study.

Justice B.S. Patil passed the order on petitions by 36 students who had challenged a Government notification of May 25, 2006 making it mandatory for students of Central syllabus to study Kannada language in their high school.

Mr. Justice Patil had earlier passed a similar order last Thursday but restricted it to the petitioners (students) who had challenged the May 25 notification by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) making Kannada a compulsory subject of study for migrant students during their stay in Karnataka.

Mr. Justice Patil on Monday passed a general order under which even those students who had not challenged the notification would stand to benefit. The students said their stay in Bangalore and the State depended entirely upon the tenure of posting of their parents and guardians who were either Union Government employees or worked in Central undertakings and they were often transferred.

The notification, they said, made it mandatory for them to take up Kannada as one of the language subjects in the 8th, 9th and 10th standards. They claimed that a migrant student, who joined schooling at the high school level, could not be expected to learn Kannada during the short time he stayed in the State and then compete with fellow students whose mother tongue was Kannada.

The students said that no purpose would be served by making them learn Kannada during their short stay in Karnataka.