Death knell for Kannada schools?

Via The Times of India

While the Karnataka government trumpets its language policy in schools and defends it all the way to the Supreme Court, the ground reality is very different. In Uttara Kannada district, many Kannada medium schools are on the verge of closure, owing to shortage of students.

As many as 41 schools have no more than five students, reveal documents provided by the education department in Uttara Kannada, the district represented by primary education minister Visweshwara Hegde Kageri.

The reasons are many: poor quality of education, lack of infrastructure, the aspiration to study in English medium schools with a higher standard, like CBSE/ICSE, and a growing inferiority complex among parents who send their children to Kannada medium schools, said Shankar Naik, a primary school teacher.

There is another unsettling phenomenon in border areas like Karwar — parents prefer to admit their children to English medium schools in Goa, which is just 13 km away. Hundreds of children travel everyday for education, and parents justify it, saying the Karnataka government has always neglected the people of border areas on the job front. Goa has a law that if a student completes 10 years of education from the primary level in Goa, he/she is eligible for the job in that state. So for the better future of the children, we have admitted them in Goan schools, is the common refrain.

Besides this is the trend of admitting children into CBSE schools, which are proving at threat to Kannada schools, he said. If it continues, Kannada medium schools will be in trouble, and so will the government. Immediate steps must be taken to improve the quality of education and infrastructure in government schools, said many teachers.

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