In a bid to restore primacy to the mother tongue, the Assembly on Tuesday passed the Right to Education (RTE) Act amendment bill and Kannada Language Learning Bill, 2015.
Amendments to the Right to Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009—popularly known as RTE Act—was passed in the Assembly after a protracted debate.
The bill seeks to provide primary education in the child’s mother tongue or in this case Kannada. The amendment can become law provided it gets Presidential assent as the RTE Act is a Central Act.
According to the provisions of the bill, RTE Act is amended in its application to Karnataka in order to provide “equal education” to all children in their mother tongue at the primary school level.
Section 29 (2) (f) of the RTE Act says: “Medium of instruction shall, as far as practicable, be in the child’s mother tongue.”
The bill provides to delete the words “as far as practicable” to restore the primacy of the mother tongue as medium of instruction.
The State had earlier made a futile attempt to make mother tongue mandatory, as the Supreme Court quashed the move.
The Assembly also passed the Kannada Language Learning Bill, 2015, to teach Kannada as one of the compulsory languages in all schools from classes I to X in a phased manner from the academic year 2015-16.
Schools affiliated to CBSE and ICSE boards will not come under the ambit of the bill.
Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Jagadish Shettar said the government might be making a sincere effort to protect Kannada, but private educational institutions that are opposing the medium of instruction policy will definitely challenge the RTE amendment bill in court.
The judiciary, however, has already given its judgment on the issue and the State is trying to challenge it, he added.
Several states, especially those in south India, are facing a similar problem.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah should consult his counterparts in other states, build a consensus and lead a delegation to the Centre seeking a Constitutional amendment, Shettar added.
JD(S) leader Y S V Datta said a Constitutional amendment is the only solution to this issue.
“The government should mount political pressure on the Centre. The RTE amendment bill may not be of any use in the view of the apex court order,” Datta said.