Bengaluru: Various private school management associations met Governor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala on Monday and urged him not to give assent to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Karnataka Amendment Bill) 2015. This bill proposes to make the medium of instruction in lower primary classes in the child’s mother tongue, after the Supreme Court had struck down the earlier govt. order in this regard.

D. Shashi Kumar, General Secretary, Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka,speaking after meeting Mr. Vala, lambasted the government as it is making efforts to make the medium of instruction in the mother tongue despite court verdicts, which have said that the State government should grant recognition to English-medium schools.

The State legislature had unanimously passed the Bill that aims to amend Section 29 of the Act, which states that the medium of instruction as far as practically possible should be in the child’s mother tongue. The amendment proposes to remove the term ‘as far as practically possible’ from the Central Act as education is the concurrent list. The amendment, however, requires the assent of the Governor and President.

Mr. Kumar said that the apex court, which had quashed the State’s 1994 language policy in May last year, had even heard submissions regarding Section 29 of the RTE Act and had said that the child and his parents or guardian have the right to choose the medium of instruction at primary school.

The memorandum submitted to the Governor reads that the State government, persons who drafted the bill and the Education Minister were liable for contempt.