BENGALURU: Following a request by the Kannada Development Authority (KDA) chairperson, Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar directed his department’s chief secretary to cancel the licence to a school that allegedly levied fines on students for speaking in Kannada. In a letter on Saturday, Kumar instructed the officer to submit a detailed report to him and the KDA chief.
The minister stated in the letter, “The SLS International Gurukul, at Channasandra, which was given a licence by the Karnataka government, has sent letters to parents of their students warning them that if the wards are found speaking Kannada on the school premises, a fine of Rs 50 will be imposed on them the first time. Repeat offenders will be fined Rs 100. This is in violation of Right to Education (RTE) Act 2019, RTE rules 2012, Kannada Language Learning Act 2015 and Kannada Language Learning Act, 2017.
Hence the license of the school must be cancelled.”
Suresh also instructed the officials to verify if the rules were indeed flouted. KDA chairman T S Nagabharana, officials and educationist P V Niranjanaradhya had recently conducted an investigation at the school and found the allegations to be true.