Children will start learning the subject from class one, says Minister

Starting this academic year, students will be taught Kannada in all schools in the State, including private, linguistic minority and Central board schools. Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Tanveer Sait, who made the announcement on Thursday, said children would start learning the subject from class one.

A circular to this effect was issued on May 29. Stringent action, including withdrawal of the no-objection certificate issued by the Education Department, would be initiated in case of non-compliance, Mr. Sait said.

Textbooks for the subject are ready and 99.89% of printing has been completed. Digitised versions of Kannada textbooks will be made available online.

On Kannada-medium schools in border areas and in other States, he said the department was studying two reports on protecting Kannada, submitted by activist Vatal Nagaraj and writer Baragur Ramachandrappa. “There are two Kannada-medium high schools in neighbouring Goa. We have written to the Goa government with an offer to give question papers and evaluate the answer sheets. We are awaiting a response,” he said.

Improving quality of English teaching

The District Institutes of Education and Training, which have tied up with the Regional Institute of Education, have trained 5,400 teachers with the aim of improving the quality of English teaching in government schools. These teachers, who are now master trainers, will be posted to the 4,100 clusters where they will train other teachers, the Minister said.

Singing Nada Geethe likely to be made mandatory in all schools

Singing the Nada Geethe (State anthem) is likely to be made mandatory in all schools in Karnataka.

Mr. Sait on Thursday said, “In many schools, during the assembly, children sing the national anthem and in some cases, even the school anthem. We have no objection to that. But we want schools to teach children to respect the land and its culture, and ensure that they sing the Nada Geethe too,” he said.

Mr. Sait said a circular would be issued once the pattern for the State anthem was finalised. “There are as many as five patterns. We have forwarded all of them to the Department of Kannada and Culture, which will finalise one,” he said. The idea is to ensure that all lines are sung without mistakes and none is repeated.

Sources in the Education Department said rules state that children should sing the Nada Geethe too, but these are being ignored by private schools and those affiliated to Central boards.

CCE for classes 5 and 7

From this academic year, the Education Department will extend Comprehensive Continuous Evaluation (CCE) to classes five and seven, said Mr. Sait. CCE was introduced in classes four and six last academic year. “We will introduce the system to other classes in a phased manner.”

An important feature of the CCE is the no-detention policy. “Even if a child has failed, the school has to make provisions for remedial classes and conduct a supplementary examination,” he added.