‘K’taka must fully implement new State Education Policy’

Bengaluru: The Kannada Development Authority has welcomed the State Education Policy recently submitted to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, describing it as a landmark framework that could reshape school and higher education over the next decade.

The policy, chaired by former UGC chairman Prof. Sukhadeo Thorat, was prepared by a commission of eminent scholars and educationists over two years, holding 132 meetings and conducting extensive data-based studies of Karnataka’s education landscape.

“This is the first time Karnataka has such a comprehensive and forward-looking State Education Policy. If fully implemented, it will radically transform our schools and universities and prepare our younger generation for the challenges of a modern society,” said Prof. Purushottam Bilimale, Chairperson of the Kannada Development Authority.

Key recommendations include improving the quality of teaching and learning, ensuring equal opportunities and participation, revising curricula, textbooks and evaluation methods, addressing inequities caused by privatisation, filling teacher vacancies within three years, tackling funding shortages in higher education, and promoting constitutional, civic and human values from the school level.

The policy also addresses the medium of instruction debate, long contentious in multilingual India. It recommends a bilingual approach with Kannada and English, while allowing communities to study their mother tongues as first languages.

“What makes this policy significant is its balance — it ensures Kannada remains central to education while respecting linguistic diversity. It is not exclusionary, and could serve as a model for the country,” Prof. Bilimale explained.

Special measures have been proposed to set up language training centres, translation hubs, and strengthen Kannada under the 2015 Kannada Learning Act. The framework also acknowledges the rights of Urdu and other linguistic minorities to retain their languages while mandating Kannada as either a first or second language.

Calling it “a game-changer for Karnataka,” Prof. Bilimale urged the government to implement the recommendations fully rather than selectively. “The comprehensive nature of this policy is its greatest strength.

If the government acts decisively, Karnataka’s education sector can emerge as a national model,” he said.