Bilingual Education will Begin Soon at 1,419 Government Schools in Karnataka

The Congress government aimed for 2,000 bilingual schools but approved 1,419. High approvals in Kalyan Karnataka were driven by the Akshara Avishkara initiative.

on Jun 17, 2024

Bilingual Education will Begin in Karnataka School | Frontlist

The Congress government also pushed bilingual schools in its budget and set a target of 2,000 schools for this academic year, but that could not be accomplished.

Taking note of the poor performance of Kannada and other language medium schools in Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) exams, as well as their dwindling numbers in the state, the Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL) recently issued an order to begin bilingual education in both English and Kannada.

According to a story in The New Indian Express, the agency requested applications from schools to begin bilingual programs and got 1,800 applications, of which 1,419 government institutions were approved after being scrutinized under specified criteria.

The Congress government, too, had encouraged bilingual schools in its budget and set a target of 2,000 schools for the current academic year, which was not met.

The Kalyan Karnataka (Kalaburagi division) region has the most government schools allowed to teach in English, with 872 in seven districts, followed by Bengaluru division with 297, Mysuru division with 140, and Dharwad division with 110.

The academic year 2024-25 began on May 29, but the decree was issued only on June 15. Officials cited the model code of conduct as the reason for the delay.

Proposals and approvals :

Education Commissioner BB Cauvery told The New Indian Express, "The academic year has just begun, and new admissions are open until the end of the month. Despite the official order delay, all schools are prepared for these classes because the proposals came from them, and we have only accepted those with the requisite infrastructure. She also stated that guest lecturers will be given priority in bilingual schools.

Regarding the high number of approvals for the Kalyan Karnataka region, the commissioner stated that the Akshara Avishkara initiative, which strives to improve the performance of primary and secondary schools in the region, has pushed more schools to meet the criterion.

"Also, the ratio of students enrolling in government schools in this region is high, prompting conducive intervention from the state government," she stated.

Previously, the department directed the Regional Institute of English, South India, and the Department of State Educational Research and Training to develop an action plan for teacher training.

A full report on the implementation of English-medium classes in government primary schools was requested. Since 2019-20, the state has 2,404 multilingual schools.
Officials at the department, on the condition of anonymity, also stated that parents are eager to enroll their children in bilingual schools, which has raised the ratio.

"At the field level, we are seeing an upsurge in parents' desire for their children to learn English from an early age. "The department received numerous proposals but rejected them due to a lack of infrastructure," the official stated.