E-Paper
Education in mother tongue: West Bengal on top, Karnataka leads southern states
The UDISE report also revealed that in comparison to Karnataka, English medium education has been on the rise in other southern states.
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Karnataka has topped the list of states where students are being given education in their mother tongue in South India, according to the latest survey report by United District Information System For Education (UDISE). West Bengal leads in the country with 89.9% enrolment in Bengali medium, where only 5.3% opted for English medium, Udayavani reported citing the UDISE report.
Odisha, which has just 1.20% Bengali speaking population, also has 80% students studying in Bengali medium. The report of UDISE has been submitted to the central government. UDISE is an application created by the education ministry for collecting information from all the recognised and unrecognised schools in the country which are imparting formal education from pre-primary to Class 12.
The UDISE report stated that 53.5% of students still prefer Kannada as their medium of instruction despite the increase of 20% students in English medium schools in Karnataka. It also said that in comparison to Karnataka, English medium education has been on the rise in other southern states.
For instance, in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, there are less than 25% students are studying in Telugu medium, while 73.8% of children are learning in English. In Andhra Pradesh, 35% of children study in Telugu medium schools.
Tamil Nadu has also seen a decline in the strength of Tamil medium students. In the last five years, the percentage has come down to 42.6% from 57.6% in 2016, according to the survey’s findings. Even Kerala has registered only 35% students studying in Malayalam medium schools.
Many Kannada activists organisations have been fighting with the government for increasing Kannada-language schools in the state besides strengthening Kannada learning facilities in the border areas of Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. There is a substantial Kannada speaking population in the border regions like Kasargod (Kerala), Hindupur (Andhra Pradesh) and Krishnagiri (Tamil Nadu). On account of this, the activists have stressed the need to enhance the education medium in Kannada in these places.
