City to get 120 govt English schools

Out of the nearly 1,000 government schools with English medium in the 2019-20 academic year, Bengaluru Urban will get the lion’s share.

In actual numbers, 956 government schools offer English medium from class 1 onwards. Of this, 120 are located inside Bengaluru Urban district, consisting of Bengaluru South and Bengaluru North education districts.

The district-wise list available with the Department of Primary and Secondary Education shows 65 of the schools are located in Bengaluru South and 55 in Bengaluru North.

Following clearance from Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, the department has issued a government order on Saturday for the commencement of English medium schools. Though 1,000 schools were to have English medium classes on a pilot basis, the chief minister cleared 956 of the 2,000 identified by the department.

“The remaining 44 schools will be allotted after gauging the public’s response. They will be given to the districts where there is more demand,” said a senior official of the department.

“While identifying the schools, we followed the norms fixed by the department that calls for four schools to be included for each Assembly constituency,” mentioned an official. Department officials also said Bengaluru gets more English medium due to the large presence of private English medium schools. “Parents in Bengaluru like to send their children to English medium schools, a reason for identifying more schools here,” the official said.

Belagavi follows Bengaluru with 73 schools, while Kodagu district — worst hit by the 2018 flooding — has eight schools, which is the least.

The department said it had prepared well to start English-medium classes. Training for teachers has been completed from the Regional Institute of English, Mysuru.

“As we are using NCERT textbooks for Mathematics and Environmental Science subjects, even the books are ready. The list of schools will be updated on the department’s website for the benefit of the public,” said S R Umashankar, principal secretary of the department.

Opening government English-medium schools was a decision taken by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, which he announced in the budget.

The move comes amidst fierce opposition from pro-Kannada organisations, which also strongly resonated in the Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana held in Dharwad. Despite the opposition, the Chief Minister stuck to his decision.

The big picture

Textbooks will be in two languages: English and Kannada.

Textbooks are activity-based and will have pictorial representations.

The bilingual concept will be extended up to class 4.

After class 4, students can choose their medium of instruction.

Admissions have already begun and classes will start on May 29.

Door-to-door campaigning will be held to get more students.