Date:23/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/23/stories/2006092306010400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

More schools face threat of closure

Bageshree S. and Chitra V. Ramani

Fresh notices issued to 1,982 schools

Bageshree S.

and Chitra V. Ramani

BANGALORE: Defying public outrage, the State Government is shutting down more private schools for violating the State Language Policy.

After the first round of denotifications, fresh notices have been issued to 1,982 schools across the State, senior officials of the Department of Education told The Hindu on Friday. As many as 1,044 schools have already been asked to shut down by the end of the month.

A department meeting on Saturday will take a final view on the issue. Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Basavaraj Horatti will preside over the meeting.

Condemned

The Karnataka Unaided School Managements Federation and The Parents Association have condemned the decision to close the schools.

Addressing presspersons here on Friday, Mullahalli Suri of The Parents Association said the lack of a uniform language policy had created a situation where only children of the poor and the lower middle-classes were denied access to English education.

Countering Mr. Horatti's statement that the schools had ignored repeated warnings by the department, Shaheen, vice-president of the federation, claimed they had replied to the notice sent by the department earlier in the year. The decision on closure had come as a shock, she added.

G.S. Sharma, president of the Karnataka (Recognised) Unaided Schools Managements Association, told The Hindu that running an educational institution was the fundamental right of citizens. The Supreme Court has upheld the principle. The Government cannot force schools to close down, he said.

Mr. Sharma said that the Government had taken the drastic step without thinking about the plight of students, teachers and parents. "Why should only schools that were given permission prior to 1994 be allowed to teach English? We cannot have legislation that says that schools opened after 1994 should teach only in Kannada-medium. There should be some sort of equality," he said.

He also said the Government was not honouring the parents' choice. Certain changes in the language policy were needed. "This, however, does not mean schools should give less importance to Kannada. On the contrary, it means that parents should have a say on the medium of instruction," he added.

Case filed

Five schools from Dharwad district have filed a case in the High Court. Mohan Limbikai, an advocate and one of the petitioners, said the Deputy Director of Public Instruction had issued the orders on August 31, which stated that the schools had been derecognised. "The schools were inspected in May when they were closed for vacation. We have asked the department to give us the inspection report," he said.

Mr. Limbikai said students of the denotified schools must be admitted to English-medium schools. "How can the Government uproot children from their schools and put them in Kannada-medium schools," he asked.