Karnataka Plans To Expand Schools Providing Education In English MediumMadhu Bangarappa, Karnataka Minister of School Education and Literacy, informed the Legislative Assembly about the government’s plans to expand the number of educational institutions providing instructions in the English language.
Responding to the Araga Jnanendra, Tirthahalli BJP MLA question, the minister informed about the growing demand for English language instruction in state-run schools. He further informed that the government is planning to open over 500 more Karnataka Public Schools (KPS), to provide education instructions in English medium in addition to Kannada. Jnanendra said that government schools are closing down because parents want their wards to get an education in English medium schools.
The education minister mentioned that studies conducted by the school education department on the reason behind the children dropping out of government-run schools are mainly due to the lack of English as a medium of instruction. Informing about the KPS providing education in English medium, Bangarappa said that with the help of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funding, the state government is planning to open up more educational institutions in the next three years.
Notably, in 2019, by the HD Kumaraswamy-led coalition government, the move to introduce English as a medium of instruction in government schools was taken. Almost, a total of 1000 government schools were identified in Karnataka to introduce English as a medium of instruction in class 1 on a pilot basis. Department of Public Instruction informed that the pilot project was taken enthusiastically as almost 75% of the schools got more than 20 students enrolled in the English-medium sections.
The enrolment in the English medium section outpaced the Kannada medium sections in these schools. However, the teachers training for English-medium instruction remained a challenge, officials say.
According to the information available, the idea of English medium schooling in government schools was also supported in 2012 by Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri, the then Primary and Secondary Education Minister of BJP who allowed English to be a medium of instruction from class 6 in government and government aided schools. But between 2013-18 the idea was shelved due to Siddaramaiah, the then CM against English as medium of schooling in government schools.
Similar actions were also taken by the Delhi, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu governments in the past to include English medium sections in schools. However, the data shows that the student and teacher ratio gets disturbed due to an increase in the number of students in the English medium sections and derailed from 30:1 as per the Right to Education Act (RTE).