Bilingual schools: Questions raised over grading of students on knowledge of English and Kannada

While questions are being raised over the Education Department’s move to grade bilingual medium studying students into A and B based on their knowledge of English and Kannada, Dakshina Kannada district education department officials said grading is to know the language competency and not to distinguish among the students.

All the 896 government primary schools in Dakshina Kannada are teaching Bilingually (Kannada and English) from this 2026-27 academic year. Dakshina Kannada is among the few districts in the State where all government primary schools are teaching in bilingual medium. Of the 896 government primary schools, 220 schools have been teaching bilingually in the last five years.

From the start of the new academic year on June 1, all students from the Classes 1 to 5 have been involved in transitional activities for about a month. The activities, include story games, spoken language acts, role plays, done as a bridge course to bilingual medium of instruction. By the end of the month, teachers have to hold a test to evaluate students. Those having knowledge of English will be graded as A, while those with Kannada will be graded as B.

Discouraging Kannada

Questioning this gradation, All India Democratic Students Organisation, Dakshina Kannada District convenor, S.V. Vinaya Chandra, said instead of promoting mother tongue learning at the primary level, the government is doing the exact opposite by discouraging the choice of Kannada. He said the government is violating Supreme Court verdict, which mandates promoting mother tongue in primary education. Mr. Chandra said giving Kannada a secondary status in learning is akin to refusing to recognise students who write in Kannada.

Remedial teaching

Deputy Director of Public Instruction (Academics) Sadanand Poonja said gradation of students is nothing new, and has been done in the past too.

With evaluation by the end of this month, teachers will get to know the competency of students in English. “This is nothing to do with their academics.” Mr. Poonja said teachers will take up remedial coaching to students in Grade B to improve their English competency. The evaluation and remedial activities will continue during the academic year. There will be no evaluation for students in Class 1, he said.

Meanwhile, bilingual textbooks are yet to reach all students. The Students Achievement Tracking System, which tracks progress of students, still continues to recognise the Bilingual students as Kannada-medium students.