BENGALURU: Several parents of kids studying in private schools are making an unusual request to school authorities.According to a few school authorities, many parents are asking them to teach their children an additional language — Hindi — from this year.
An ICSE school principal said, “As the state government made learning Kannada language mandatory from Class I this year, many parents are approaching us to teach Hindi to their kids, along with Kannada.”
According to private school authorities, CBSE and ICSC schools are facing this issue because of their two-language policy. As state-board schools have three-language policy, Hindi is taught as the third language.
While a few CBSE and ICSE school authorities said that they cannot teach an additional language, a few schools have agreed to conduct weekend classes. A CBSE school principal said, “This will be an added pressure on kids as well as on schools. But parents don’t understand this. If we object, they threaten to withdraw admissions.”
Dr B Gayethri Devi, principal of Little Flower Public School, said, “We are trying to convince parents about the pressure on kids if we impose one more language. Despite this, parents who are from other states are requesting for an alternate arrangement. Considering this, we decided to conduct weekend classes.”
D Shashi Kumar, general secretary of the Associated Management of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said, “The issue has already been discussed at the government level but, because the election code of conduct was in place, it was not taken forward. We will again approach the government on the issue.”