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Cover Story

SC medium of instruction verdict

n a landmark judgement delivered on May 6, 2014
in State of Karnataka & Anr. vs. Associated Man-
agements of (Government Recognised Unaided
IEnglish Medium) Primary & Secondary Schools &
Ors, the Supreme Court upheld a 2008 Karnataka high
court judgement which had quashed a state government
order issued in 1994 mandating Kannada or mother
tongue as the compulsory medium of instruction in all
primary schools statewide.
The apex court ruled that imposing any language as the
medium of instruction violates the fundamental right of
parents and children to choose their preferred in-school
language of instruction.
However this SC verdict has not ended decades of
confusion, obfuscation, harassment and corruption aided
and abetted by state governments on the issue of regional
language or mother tongue being employed as the man-
datory language of instruction in primary school. NEP
2020 reiterates that early childhood and primary school
children should learn in their mother tongue, ignoring the
ground reality that 20 children in a given classroom may
have 12 mother tongues.
See www.educationworld.in Archives (Education News
report June 2014)

70 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2025