BENGALURU: Over 50 private schools in Bengaluru are allegedly not following the Compulsory Kannada Language Learning Act, 2015 which was implemented strictly from the current academic year.
The list available with the state department of public instructions, provided by the Deputy Directors of Public Instructions (DDPI), indicates that over 50 private schools affiliated to various boards have violated the act and are not introducing Kannada as their first or second language.
Following the recommendations by the Kannada Development Authority (KDA), the state government had decided to make Kannada a compulsory subject (first or second language) at all the schools functioning in the state, irrespective of the board they follow, and the same had been implemented from the academic year 2018-19. But, even six months after the commencement of the academic year, some schools have been found violating the rule.
When the state government took this decision, several private schools affiliated to CBSE and ICSE boards had raised an objection. But, later as it became a state policy, the schools were forced to implement it.
Recently, the Kannada Development Authority received complaints against some of the schools alleging that they were not following the said rule. Based on the complaints, KDA chairperson Prof SG Siddaramaiah wrote a letter to the state department of primary and secondary education to submit a report.
"Following the letter received from the KDA chairperson, we have instructed our DDPIs to visit the schools across the state and submit a report about the alleged violation. For some of the districts, we have yet to get the report," said Basavaraja, director of primary education department.
He said the department would initiate an action against such schools soon by first issuing notices as per the process. "Once we get the report from all the districts we will issue notices to school managements which are violating the Compulsory Kannada rule," Basavaraja said.
The KDA authorities, on their part, have directed the primary and secondary education department to initiate action to disaffiliate such schools. Prof Siddaramaiah said, "I have written a letter to the education department about the violation of the act by some of the private schools and have asked them to submit action taken report. But till date we have not received a reply from them. The department must take measures immediately to disaffiliate such schools."
However, the rule framed by the department has no provisions to disaffiliate violating schools. As per the rules, the department can only levy a penalty of `500 on such schools in the first year.