BENGALURU: Soon after the Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL) announced grades for Third Language exams instead of marks for SSLC students, most of the academicians have welcomed the move. They advised the department to take necessary steps in this regard considering various factors like Urdu medium schools, total number of schools teaching Kannada as third language in the state and other reasons.
They also urged the state government to implement the State Education Policy from the next academic year, so that these confusions can be avoided. The SEP draft policy provides for implementation of two language policy focusing on Kannada or the mother tongue and English languages. Kannada Development Authority Chairman Dr Purushottam Bilimale has welcomed the decision.
He said, “This decision complements the bilingual policy advocated in the SEP and will reduce unnecessary language pressure on students and also promote the growth of the Kannada language.”Bilimale said this decision is an effective step towards making the state’s education system Kannada-friendly.
However, Prof Venugopal KR, former Vice-Chancellor, Bangalore University, said, “The government must not conduct state-level board exams for third language if they have decided to grade it. For instance, in the higher education system, we have some subjects that we call audit subjects. Such subjects are not considered for total marks. Hence, students are given some assignments or internal tests instead of conducting exams.
It is a waste of resources like spending money on exam sheets, paying evaluator fees.” Prof Dominic Davidappa, HOD, Kannada department, Bangalore University, Jnanabharati campus, said, “SEP Commission has recommended a dual language policy. It is very important that in doing so, no other languages of the state have been neglected.
For example, Urdu speakers in Karnataka can study Urdu as their first language if they want to. Then they must study Kannada, the state language, as a second language. And any language from the country or abroad can be studied as a third language. There will be no examination for that third language.”
However, another professor from Dr Manmohan Singh Bengaluru City University, on condition of anonymity said, “The decision will lead to teachers ignoring third language leading to low quality of teaching and students will also neglect learning it. In fact, this reduces the level of competency among students. Having proficiency in more than two languages will always help students pursue other subjects better.”