Over 500 applications from schools rejected

[sajiv]

Over 500 applications from schools rejected

BANGALORE: The State and private unaided schools are all set to renew their battle over the medium of instruction this year too as the Government has rejected applications by many schools seeking permission to start teaching in English medium from this academic year.

More than 500 applications were received by the State for permission to start English-medium schools in Bangalore.

All the applications have been rejected, with an endorsement that the matter relating to medium of instruction is pending decision in the Supreme Court.

A large number of unaided private schools had applied last year to the jurisdictional deputy director of public instruction (DDPI) seeking permission to start English-medium schools. The schools had to file applications for change in medium of instruction or for starting a new school (in English medium) to the jurisdictional DDPI by October 31, 2008 if they wanted to commence teaching from this academic year.

The authorities, on their part, were obliged to take a decision within three months after the last date of receiving applications.

Many schools had opted to file applications after a Full Bench of the High Court, comprising the then Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph, Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice N. Kumar, had said that the State could not compel any student to learn through a particular medium of instruction. Karnataka Unaided Schools Management Association (KUSMA), which claims to have more than 1,000 schools as its members, has taken the lead in challenging the endorsement by petitioning the High Court. It has challenged an endorsement of February 25 to a Bangalore-based institution, Rajajinagar Education Society, refusing permission to start an English-medium school.

A single judge of the High Court on Monday not only quashed the endorsement but also directed the State to consider it in the light of the Full Bench judgment. This judgment will not give much leeway to the State now to reject applications for starting English-medium schools. The only option for the State is to move for an early hearing in the Supreme Court and seek a stay of the High Court judgment.

Sources in the office of the Advocate-General told The Hindu that the State had readied an application seeking early hearing before the Supreme Court. The sources said the case on April 21 is likely to come up before the Registrar and not before the court.

They too agree that the State would be "treading on thin ice" if they continue to issue endorsements refusing permission to schools to start English-medium schools as there is no stay of the High Court order by the Supreme Court. This means that the High Court order is operational, more so when the academic year commences from June this year.

Source:hindu