Bengaluru: A debate on primary education in the mother tongue that had stopped after the 2015 Supreme Court judgement quashing the Karnataka’s language policy of 1994 has resurfaced again with parts of the Draft National Education Policy 2016 being made public by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
According to the 43-page input, which has been circulated widely among the academics, the Union government has proposed education in mother tongue between Standards I and V. If the central government comes out with a constitutional amendment making the changes then Kannada medium may become mandatory in all schools in the state, irrespective of the board they are affiliated to.
The document also observes that keeping with special importance of Sanskrit to the growth and development of Indian languages and its unique contribution to the cultural unity of the country, facilities for teaching Sanskrit at school and university levels will be offered on a more liberal scale.
An officer from the Department of Public Instruction told Deccan Chronicle, “Several states, including Karnataka, want the Union government to bring constitutional amendments on the medium of instruction. The debate has just started on the Draft National Education Policy 2016. We need to wait for another two to three years for a clear picture.”
