Kannada writers warn of protest to save govt schools

Noted Kannada writers and intellectuals on Saturday threatened to launch a Gokak-like agitation if Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy does not roll back his budgetary proposals to merge government schools and start English-medium classes.

Jnanpith awardee Chandrashekhara Kambara, writer Chandrashekhara Patil (Champa), Dalit poet Siddalingaiah, Kannada Sahitya Parishat president Manu Baligar, scholar M Chidananda Murthy, freedom fighter H S Doreswamy among others held a meeting where they resolved to mount pressure on the government.

“Our stand is that the budgetary proposals are anti-Kannada. They won’t help keep Kannada alive in elementary education,” Kannada Development Authority (KDA) chairperson S G Siddaramaiah told reporters. A delegation comprising Siddaramaiah and Baligar later met Kumaraswamy at his home office Krishna.

The government has identified 28,847 government and aided schools with low enrollment to be merged with 8,530 nearby schools. Also, Kumaraswamy announced that English-medium classes will be started along with existing Kannada-medium classes in 1,000 government schools to improve enrollment.

“Merger of schools is just a lame excuse to close them. No school should be closed. The previous chief minister had said that no school will be shut even if it had only one child. And the decision to start
English-medium is a body blow for the Kannada language,” Siddaramaiah said, accusing bureaucrats of misleading elected representatives.
“Officers are the biggest enemies of primary education,” he said, pointing out that many schools were yet to start teaching Kannada as per the Kannada Language Learning Act, 2015.

Champa said they will collectively ask the chief minister to implement the KDA
recommendations to strengthen government schools. “Otherwise, we may have to resort to a Gokak-like agitation and the Kannada Sahitya Parishat will have to take the lead,” he said.

Earlier, Kannada litterateurs including late U R Ananthamurthy, had rallied to make Kannada the medium of instruction in primary education. In a landmark judgement in 2014, the Supreme Court struck down Karnataka’s plea to have Kannada as the medium of instruction.

In the Saturday’s meeting, educationist V P Niranjanaradhya said amending Articles 21 and 350A was the only way to ensure mother tongue is made the medium of instruction. “This will allow a Karnataka student in Maharashtra study in Kannada,” he said, adding that a national policy on languages was also necessary. However, Siddaramaiah and others said the state language, and not the mother tongue, should become the medium.

HDK defends English medium in government schools

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has defended the move to introduce English-medium education in government schools, amid opposition from pro-Kannada writers and intellectuals.

“The decision to introduce English is to help rural children. This will not affect Kannada in any manner. Also, by improving infrastructure, we want to create an environment in which government schools can compete with private schools,” Kumaraswamy told a delegation led by KDA chairperson S G Siddaramaiah. He also assured them that the government will not take any decision that is against the interests of the Kannada language.

According to sources, there was a heated exchange of words between Kumaraswamy and Mysuru-based socialist S Mallesh and other members of the delegation.