Date:29/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/29/stories/2006122908590500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Panel for uniform language policy

Special Correspondent

Bangalore: The State Government should implement a uniform language policy in education through an Ordinance to ensure that English does not remain "the preserve of the haves", an expert committee has recommended.

The committee, set up by a forum of schools that have been de-recognised by the Education Department for flouting the language policy of the State, has recommended in its report that the de-recognition order be withdrawn in the interest of students, parents, school managements and teachers. It has said that Kannada should be taught as a compulsory subject in ICSC and CBSC schools.

Arguing that English is the language of employment opportunities in the era of economic reforms, the committee has said that only people from lower economic groups are being denied a chance for upward mobility because the Government's language policy "favours the rich".

Report

The committee, headed by Rajappa Dalawai, has Mullahalli Soori, H.R.L. Sharief, Suresh Topannavar and M.S. Mani as members. The committee has submitted copies of the report to Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and Primary and Secondary Education Minister Basavaraj Horatti.

The Education Department derecognised 2,000 schools in September for violating the language policy, which states that the medium of instruction should be either Kannada or the mother tongue. These schools had given an undertaking to the department that they would not violate the policy, but were running English-medium schools. According to the Government order, these schools will be closed down by the end of this academic year.