Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah
Credit: Karnataka CMO
Bengaluru: The state education policy (SEP) commission is said to be in favour of the implementation of the two-language policy in the state.
Sources from the commission confirmed to DH that the committee constituted to submit recommendations on primary education was all set to recommend implementation of the two-language policy in place of the existing three-language policy. The SEP commission is translating its report to Kannada and will submit the same to the government soon.
Though the issue was not discussed initially, the commission took up the issue voluntarily and decided to submit a recommendation on it, following the recent outcry and pressure on the government to drop the three-language policy.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah recently made a statement in favour of the two- language policy. The private schools’ association in the state has expressed disagreement over the implementation of the two-language policy.
D Shashikumar, general secretary of the Associated Management of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS), told a press conference on Saturday, “The government should not scrap the three-language policy. Children should have the opportunity to learn an extra language. Of course, there should be no imposition of Hindi”.
If the three-language policy is scrapped, schools which are teaching in Hindi, Urdu and other mediums will face closure. “In that case, children studying at such schools will be deprived of education in the mother tongue,” he said.
The association would launch a legal fight if the government considered implementing the two-language policy, Shashikumar said.