The union government has submitted before the Karnataka High Court that there is no mention of compulsion of language in the National Education Policy (NEP-2020).
A memo in this regard was filed in a PIL challenging government orders making Kannada a compulsory subject for degree students.
The high court is hearing PILs filed by Samskrita Bharati (Karnataka) Trust, Bengaluru, three other institutions associated with the promotion of Sanskrit language and degree students.
The petitions challenge the government orders dated August 7, 2021, and September 15, 2021, and claimed that compelling students to learn Kannada as a language is contrary to the very objective of NEP-2020.
The memo on behalf of the union government was filed by Dinesh T Pali, undersecretary to the department of higher education under the Ministry of Education.
The memo stated that as per NEP-2020, higher education institutions may offer a medium of instructions or programmes in local/Indian languages. The memo said that part-2 of NEP-2020, which deals with higher education, emphasises on more higher education institutions across the country that offer a medium of instruction in local/Indian languages.
Para 22.10 under chapter 22 of NEP, titled ‘Promotion of Indian Languages, Arts and Culture,’ states that higher education institutions will use mother tongue/local language as medium of instruction and/or offer bilingually.
“There is no mention of any compulsion of language in National Education Policy 2020 and the provisions of NEP 2020 are clear. Therefore, there is no need for re-articulation of provisions. It is reiterated that chapter 4 of part 1, chapter 9 of part 2, chapter 22 of part 3 are in the form of broad policy of the Union of India. The NEP 2020 is designed to achieve a comprehensive educational system for providing easy access to citizens keeping in mind the aspirations of local, regional and national levels. As such, the policy has to be understood, interpreted and implemented keeping in mind, broad objectives enshrined in the constitution,” the memo said.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi adjourned the hearing to April 4, following a request made on behalf of the advocate general. The court had passed an interim order on December 16, 2021, restraining the state government and Bengaluru City University from taking any precipitative action in the matter.
Check out the latest videos from DH: