MYSURU: Kannada Development Authority (KSA) Chairman S G Siddaramaiah said on Sunday that the government's decision to start government English medium schools is against the development of Kannada.
Calling the state's initiative as anti-Kannada, he said any move to offer primary education in English would defeat the purpose of primary education and feared that it will also have a cascading effect on higher education. He said that many, including Kuvempu, C N R Rao and U R Rao, who emerged as global leaders, studied in Kannada medium schools.
He said local languages will become symbolic if English and Hindi become first and second languages in the proposed three-language policy. Referring to Kuvempu's warning against the three-language policy, he said the commericialisation of private education institutes has posed a threat to Kannada as they have provisions to teach German, Japanese and Sanskrit as the third language.