Now, compulsory Kannada in schools across all boards: Education Dept

The rule will be executed from the next session in 2018-2019. The move has received severe backlash from CBSE, ICSE schools. They say that this is a violation of a child's rights to choose a language.

The Education Department of Karnataka has released a set of compulsory guidelines, making Kannada language compulsory in all schools across all boards. Students from Class 1 to Class 10 will be taught Kannada in all the schools from the next session. 

In the rule released on October 12, the department said that students from Class 1 to 4 will be taught at the introductory level. Textbooks `Nali Kali Kannada' and `Kali Nali Kannada' will be used to teach them. Class 5 onwards, the subject will have to be chosen compulsorily as either first or second language. 

The schools that have been included in the order are Kendriya Vidyalayas, CBSE, ICSE schools and schools following the state syllabus in English medium. The order follows the Kannada Language Learning Act, 2015, which follows the guidelines set by the government. 

This move, however, received a severe backlash from CBSE owners association. The order, according to many media sources, comes ahead of the assembly elections in 2018 for a strategic reason. It has always been in Congress Government's agenda list. According to a report by OneIndia, Srinivasan Muthusawmy, President, Managements of Independent CBSE Schools Association said, "The move is a violation of a child's right to choose a language. The order is contradictory to a central government order that makes Hindi a compulsory subject for students in CBSE schools. It is very problematic for us to implement this since the language is a child's choice."

Managements of various schools have decided to raise the issue with Siddaramaiah and that does not suffice, they have also threatened to go to courts to seek legal action.