The Supreme Courts sharp reprimand to the Karnataka government while upholding a high court judgement striking down the states 1994 language policy mandating Kannada (or the mother tongue) as the medium of instruction in all primary schools in the state, has come as a welcome relief to right thinking citizens countrywide. While delivering the apex courts interim judgement, chief justice K.G. Balakrishnan forbade the BJP-led Karnataka state government from closing down any private school teaching in the English medium, and rebuked it for imposing the vernacular as the medium of instruction in the states primary schools for over 15 years. Strongly disapproving of government intervention in the right of parents to choose English as the medium of instruction for their children in private unaided primaries, the judgement noted that knowledge of English is necessary for securing even clerical jobs, and vernacular medium students stood at a lesser footing as all competitive exams are in English.The apex courts rebuke to the incumbent and predecessor governments of this southern state, which once enjoyed a nationwide reputation for academic excellence, was long overdue. On July 2 last year, a three-judge bench of the Karnataka high court, in a lengthy and reasoned judgement, upheld the right of promoters/owners of private unaided primary schools to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice, and simultaneously of parents/students to choose the medium of instruction they deemed fit for their children. Despite this unanimous verdict, the state government refused to grant permission for promotion of new English medium primaries and/or ‘recognise existing ones. That the incumbent BJP governments medium of instruction policy for primary education is on all fours with that of the previous Janata Dal (S) and Congress governments, is indicative of a deep conspiracy cutting across all party lines to impose Kannada and/or vernacular languages upon all 56,000 primary schools with an aggregate enrolment of 5 million students statewide. And given that the overwhelming majority of the states politicians, educrats and language chauvinists enrol their own progeny in English medium schools, its painfully apparent that beyond their professed love of Kannada language and culture, the prime motivation is perpetuation of the captive market for Kannada language textbooks of dubious quality and scholarship. The state governments obstinate refusal to acknowledge that even the poorest of the poor aspire to English fluency for their children, as the passport to the best universities and jobs, is indicative of cynicism of the worst kind. Surely they are aware that even the poorest parents are deserting free Kannada medium government schools in favour of fee-charging private English medium schools? Now that the Supreme Court has sharply reprimanded the state government for cynically jeopardising the future of millions of children by denying them English language learning, one hopes it will apply closure to this contentious issue. Its high time the Karnataka government falls in line with the other states of the country, leaving selection of the medium of instruction to parents not only in private, but also in government schools. Resist…
