A 10-year-old student from Bengaluru has filed a petition before the Karnataka High Court challenging the Kannada Language Learning Act, 2015, which requires the language to be taught as a compulsory subject in classes 1-10 in all schools either as a first language or a second language.
Keertan Suresh, a Class 4 student at the Bishop Cotton Boys’ School, requested the court to declare the Act unconstitutional as it does not exempt institutions affiliated to CBSE/ICSE. He was represented by his mother N Sujatha, a child rights activist.
The court has ordered notice to the state government and Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination in New Delhi.
The principal of the school, where the petitioner is studying, has informed the guardians that Kannada will be taught as a second language while other preferred languages will be continued as a third language for classes 1-4 from the academic year 2020-2021.
According to the petitioner, the provisions in the Act are contrary to the Karnataka Education Act, 1983, which confers right upon boards to regulate curriculum, as well as the objective of the National Education Policy, 2020.
The petition said that the only provision in the Constitution which contains the expression ‘mother tongue’ is Article 350A. According to the petitioner, Article 350A only casts a duty on every state to provide adequate facilities for instruction in ‘mother tongue’ at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups.
The petitioner claimed it does not empower the state to interfere with the right to freedom of speech and expression and the right to establish and administer schools under Article 19 of the Constitution.
The petitioner said that people with transferable jobs always opt for CBSE or ICSE schools to educated their children.
“It is submitted that such a stay might be a temporary stay and are always prone to transfers. A child who will be made to study Kannada as a second language will be put through great hardship and would be at a disadvantageous position if being transferred to another state in the subsequent year,” the petition said.
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