<p class="byline">Private schools, including those affiliated to the CBSE and ICSE, have been given time till February 10 to show their willingness to teach Kannada as a subject in the next academic year.</p>.<p>The Department of Public Instruction wants schools to teach Kannada as the first or second language in Classes I and II in the 2018-19 academic year.</p>.<p>This is as per the Kannada Language Learning (KLL) Act.</p>.<p>The department has directed heads of all private schools to use the Student Achievement Tracking System portal and enter the choice of their students - Kannada as the first language or second.</p>.<p>Based on this, February 10 is the deadline for block education officers (BEO) and deputy directors of public instruction (DDPIs) to find out their requirement of Kannada textbooks.</p>.<p>According to the rules framed under the KLL Act, Kannada should have been introduced in Class I in the 2017-18 academic year.</p>.<p>Now, with Kannada slated to become compulsory from 2018-19, it will be extended to other classes with each passing year. By 2027, Kannada will be taught from Class I-X.</p>.<p>The decision to make Kannada compulsory was taken after the government lost a two-decade-old legal battle in the Supreme Court on making Kannada the medium of instruction.</p>.<p>Karnataka has 1.13 crore students in 78,146 schools. Of them, nearly 50,000 schools are government-run.</p>.<p>A section of private schools, however, have slammed the move to make Kannada compulsory.</p>.<p>"There are genuine issues. Some schools don't even have a Kannada teacher," said Shalini Rajneesh, principal secretary (primary and secondary education).</p>.<p>"We plan to offer private schools e-learning tools and also train their primary teachers. We want to make the policy amenable," she said.</p>.<p>Any school that refuses to offer Kannada as first or second language as per the KLL Act will lose recognition, Shalini said.</p>.<p>"The Act and rules are very clear. What else can we do but derecognise schools?"</p>
<p class="byline">Private schools, including those affiliated to the CBSE and ICSE, have been given time till February 10 to show their willingness to teach Kannada as a subject in the next academic year.</p>.<p>The Department of Public Instruction wants schools to teach Kannada as the first or second language in Classes I and II in the 2018-19 academic year.</p>.<p>This is as per the Kannada Language Learning (KLL) Act.</p>.<p>The department has directed heads of all private schools to use the Student Achievement Tracking System portal and enter the choice of their students - Kannada as the first language or second.</p>.<p>Based on this, February 10 is the deadline for block education officers (BEO) and deputy directors of public instruction (DDPIs) to find out their requirement of Kannada textbooks.</p>.<p>According to the rules framed under the KLL Act, Kannada should have been introduced in Class I in the 2017-18 academic year.</p>.<p>Now, with Kannada slated to become compulsory from 2018-19, it will be extended to other classes with each passing year. By 2027, Kannada will be taught from Class I-X.</p>.<p>The decision to make Kannada compulsory was taken after the government lost a two-decade-old legal battle in the Supreme Court on making Kannada the medium of instruction.</p>.<p>Karnataka has 1.13 crore students in 78,146 schools. Of them, nearly 50,000 schools are government-run.</p>.<p>A section of private schools, however, have slammed the move to make Kannada compulsory.</p>.<p>"There are genuine issues. Some schools don't even have a Kannada teacher," said Shalini Rajneesh, principal secretary (primary and secondary education).</p>.<p>"We plan to offer private schools e-learning tools and also train their primary teachers. We want to make the policy amenable," she said.</p>.<p>Any school that refuses to offer Kannada as first or second language as per the KLL Act will lose recognition, Shalini said.</p>.<p>"The Act and rules are very clear. What else can we do but derecognise schools?"</p>
