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Med students from outside the state to be taught Kannada, says min Sudhakar
The minister said that the National Education Policy has emphasised the use of mother tongue in education.
Education minister Dr K Sudhakar on Tuesday said that the students from other states pursuing medical education in Karnataka will be taught Kannada.
“The programme to teach Kannada language to out-of-state students in all medical, para-medical and nursing colleges of the state will be implemented from the current academic year,” Sudhakar said.
The minister said that the National Education Policy (NEP) has emphasised the use of mother tongue in education.
“Some states have already allowed learning medical courses in the mother tongue. This is the concept of New India. Similarly, a programme to teach Kannada to all medical students will be implemented this year,” the minister added.
Pointing out that the state government is mulling on enacting a law that makes using the Kannada language mandatory in all spheres of activity, Sudhakar said, “We should have Karnataka within us.”
Addressing the 67th Kannada Rajyothsava celebrations in Bengaluru on Tuesday, Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai had said that a law will be enacted in the state by getting the bill passed in the coming session of the state legislature on the use of Kannada in all fields.
“Ours will be the first government to give legal protection to Kannada language,” the chief minister had said.
Bommai had also called for a “free and frank discussion on the proposed legislation in public” and said that the government is ready to “accept all the suggestions with an open mind”.
Last month, the Union education ministry had said that textbooks for medicine, nursing, and pharmacy will be offered in all major Indian languages within the next three years.
Madhya Pradesh has already released textbooks in Hindi for three subjects in the MBBS course as part of a project to impart medical education in that language.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has also said that medical and engineering education would be soon imparted in Hindi in the state.
