1,419 govt primary schools yet to receive English medium text books

Bengaluru: The government has given permission to start English bilingual medium classes in government primary schools from 2024-25 along with existing Kannada/other medium. In 1,419 government primary schools with an enrollment of more than 75 children in the state, the government has given permission to start classes in English medium along with existing Kannada medium from class one. But the government schools which have received this government order are facing their own problems.

Currently, thousands of children are preparing for the mid-term exams, and the 1,419 schools that introduced English-medium sections earlier this year are yet to receive textbooks. Due to this, there are problems for children studying their syllabus. Despite this, on September 5, the government decided to sanction English-medium departments in 373 more schools by mid-year as part of its program to add the most sought-after departments in 2,000 schools.

While the Karnataka Textbook Society, which supplies books to government schools, is likely to supply the necessary study materials by the end of this month, some experts have suggested using previous year’s books or downloading them from the website until other arrangements are made can help.

In 2019, when HD Kumaraswamy was the chief minister, English medium department was started in government schools. Since then, 2,403 schools, including 285 Karnataka public schools, have started English-medium departments. Now, spurred by public demand, the state government has announced to add 2,000 English-medium departments in the 2024-25 budget. There is still a shortage of textbooks for 1,419 schools and the parents have expressed outrage as there are no books.