Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, June 18: The Karnataka Department of School Education and Literacy has approved the introduction of English-medium sections from Class 8 in select government high schools, enabling more than 30,000 students to continue studying in the same medium after completing Class 7.
The decision comes after thousands of students who completed Class 7 in English-medium sections this year were left facing uncertainty, as many of their schools either lacked high school facilities or did not offer English-medium instruction beyond Class 7. However, the newly sanctioned sections will be opened only in schools that do not have another government English-medium high school within a two-kilometre radius.
The affected students belong to the first batch enrolled in English-medium sections introduced in government schools during the 2018-19 academic year. Following representations by headmasters highlighting the students’ predicament, the department decided to permit the continuation of English-medium education at these schools from the current academic year.
Commissioner of the Department of School Education, Vikas Kishor Suralkar, said, “We are granting permission to start English-medium sections for Class 8 at those schools that were opened in 2018-19 so students who studied there till Class 7 can continue their education at the same school. But we have granted permission only to those schools within the two-kilometre radius of which, there is no other English-medium government high school.”
Suralkar added that guest teachers would be deputed to the new English-medium sections. The department is also collecting feedback on classroom availability and taking stock of infrastructure at the schools concerned.
The delay in taking a decision, however, prompted many parents to enrol their children in private English-medium schools.
“Of the 16 students in English-medium sections who passed out of Class 7, only three decided to enrol in our Kannada-medium high school, while the rest joined private schools,” said the headmaster of a government high school in Sedam taluk of Kalaburagi district.
The headmaster of a government school in Hoovina Hadagali in Vijayanagara district said the lack of clarity had forced schools to allow students to transfer out. “Now, we can't ask the parents to withdraw their kids from the private schools since the schools are unlikely to refund the fees,” the headmaster said.
While the latest approval is expected to ensure continuity in English-medium education for future batches of government school students, many in the current cohort may have already shifted to private institutions because of the delay.