A few Education Department officials had to sacrifice their weekly off on Sunday. They had to work at the office to grant permission to 543 schools in the Bengaluru and Mysuru divisions to impart education in English medium.
With the High Court lambasting the Department of Public Instruction to speed up the process, the department officials accorded English medium status to 1,172 of the total 1,297 schools in the Bengaluru and Mysuru division. The department, however, is yet to begin processing the applications of managements that want to start new English medium schools from the 2015-2016. These schools that were established after 1994 when the government stopped recognising English medium schools as it formulated the language policy mandating that the medium of instruction should be in the child’s mother tongue or the regional language. Following the Supreme Court order that quashed the language policy, the High Court of Karnataka had set May 20 deadline for the State government to grant English-medium status to all existing schools, which have been imparting education in English for children in classes 1 to 5 since 1994.
English medium status granted to 1,172 of the total 1,297 schools in the Bengaluru and Mysuru divisions
