School managements welcome SC decision

Fight was to help children

The High Court had originally ruled that the government should give permission to all schools that had applied for English medium since 1994.

The President of the Karnataka Unaided School Managements Association (KUSMA), G S Sharma who welcomed said, “We argued that the future of children will be at stake. If the State government does not change its stand we could have an entire generation of unemployed people.”

Meanwhile, the Karnataka State Private Schools Management Federation too welcomed the decision. Federation Secretary Sudi Suresh, who also runs the S S Public School in Vigneshwar Nagar, said that the judgment will be of great benefit to the middle and lower classes of society who aspire for an English education.

Schools de-recognised

Hundreds of schools in Bangalore including S S Public School were de-recognised by the State government for not following its language policy. Although the schools were de-recognised, a majority of them continued to function as the managements stuck to the High Court ruling given in April, this year.

Meanwhile, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Visveshwar Hegde Kageri, on Tuesday, said there was no change in the government’s stand that Kannada or mother tongue should be the medium of instruction in schools and would place its argument before the Supreme Court at its next hearing.

Speaking to reporters in Bangalore, Kageri said the Supreme Court had stayed the  contempt proceedings initiated by the High Court of Karnataka for not complying with court orders on the language issue.

The apex court had earlier stayed the contempt proceedings till July 24. “The present stay has been extended till the next hearing (August 27) in the Supreme Court. The stay has come as a relief to us. We will place our argument in detail before the Supreme Court,” Kageri said.

Child’s right upheld

A Full Bench of the Karnataka High Court had on July 2, 2008, upheld the right of a child to choose the medium of instruction at the primary school.

A Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court had castigated the government and the officials for failing to implement the judgement and it had warned them of initiating contempt proceedings if they continued to further defy the High Court verdict.