State seeks refuge in Right to Education Act
BANGALORE: The state government has cited the Central enactment Right to Education Act, 2009 as one of the additional grounds in its defence in the language policy case pending before the Supreme Court.
The Karnataka government has said that the Right to Education Act mandates that the medium of instruction shall be the child’s mother tongue.
The state government had ordered that Kannada should be the medium of instruction in primary schools. It was partly struck down by a full bench of the High Court on July 2, 2008.
The state government has cited section 29 (f) of the Right to Education Act which stipulates that the academic authority, while laying down the curriculum and evaluation procedure, ensure that the medium of instruction of the students, shall as far as practicable be their mother tongue.
It is obligatory on the part of the state government to provide infrastructure to provide education in the mother tongue of the child, the state government said in its additional statement.
The state’s language policy is in favour of law enacted by the Centre, the government said in its statement.
In July 2008, a full bench of the Karnataka High Court had partly struck down the language policy of the state. The Right to Education Act, 2009, came into force after the full-bench verdict on the language policy.
The Karnataka High Court had held that the state had no power to make a rule that the medium of instruction should be the mother tongue or Kannada in unaided schools.
In the language policy, the state has made Kannada the compulsory medium of instruction from class one to five.
