There is bad news for regional language chauvinists. The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stop private unaided schools in Karnataka from introducing English as the medium of instruction.
The judges declined to stay a Karnataka High Court order that allowed private unaided and minority institutions in the state to impart education in English and not in Kannada, the language the state had declared as the compulsory medium of instruction in all schools.
"Why do you want to enforce the mother tongue?" a bench headed by chief justice KG Balakrishnan asked counsel for the state. Karnataka had sought a stay on the high court's judgment, saying it was against the government's policy decision.
Adjourning the hearing till the first week of August, the bench also said that if parents want to pay a higher fee to teach their children in English-medium schools, they should be allowed to do so.
"English enjoys universal acceptability," the court observed while hearing the state government's appeal, which said the government evolved an interim language policy in June 1989, introducing the mother tongue as the medium of instruction from Std I to IV. The state had also issued endorsements refusing institutions permission to start English-medium schools or to switch from the Kannada to the English medium.
At least 1,400 schools covering all four educational districts in the state had filed applications seeking permission to teach in the English medium. When the state rejected their pleas, the affected schools formed the Karnataka United Schools Management's Association (Kusuma) and moved the high court, questioning the state's policy.
The high court had set July 8 as the deadline for the state government to comply with its order allowing these private schools to teach in the English language.
