FIRM STAND: (From left) Kannada Sahitya Parishat president Chandrashekar Patil, G.S. Shivarudrappa, poet, K.S. Nisar Ahmed, poet, and H.S. Doreswamy, freedom fighter, at the launch of protest in Bangalore on Friday.

BANGALORE: A section of Kannada writers and educationists have protested against the Government's decision to introduce English from first standard in government schools, which they termed as "politically motivated and unscientific."

Inaugurating a Statewide protest against the Government on the issue in front of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat building here on Friday, Rashtrakavi G.S. Shivarudrappa said the protest was only a beginning of a movement against the Government's language policy.

The decision was an "onslaught" on Kannadigas when the expectation was that the Government would make the mother tongue as the medium of instruction in primary education at least during the Suvarna Karnataka year, he said. Prof. Shivarudrappa said the Government had ignored the resolution adopted at the Kannada Sahitya Sammelan in Shimoga on the issue. It had introduced English as a language of study in 45,000 primary schools in the State ignoring the suggestions made by the Supreme Court and the Kannada Development Authority.

Noted poet K.S. Nisar Ahmed said the Government should take steps to honour the resolutions adopted at the sahitya sammelan in Shimoga for according prime status to Kannada in the State.

President of Kannada Sahitya Parishat Chandrashekhar Patil said the Government should be congratulated for its decision to take action against schools that had violated the language policy. But its decision to introduce English was politically motivated as the issue was pending before the High Court, he added.

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