Karnataka CM Pushes for Mother Tongue Education, Expands Kannada Teaching in Madrasas

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has made a strong appeal to the Central government to enact legislation ensuring that education is imparted in students' mother tongues. Speaking at the 70th Kannada Rajyotsava celebration, he emphasized that reliance on English and Hindi has weakened children's learning abilities.

The state government announced an ambitious plan to develop 800 Kannada-medium and 100 Urdu-medium schools into Karnataka Public Schools at a cost of Rs 2,500 crore. Additionally, Kannada teaching is being introduced in madrasas across the state, starting with 180 institutions this year and expanding to 1,500 madrasas.

Siddaramaiah stressed the importance of modernizing Kannada to meet technological challenges and prevent job displacement from artificial intelligence. He called upon scholars and technical experts to contribute to making Kannada a language of modern technology, while preparing a new policy to elevate Kannada language, culture, and heritage to the global level.