Learning languages and choice of language as medium of instruction at primary and secondary school stages seem to have got into the crucible of confusion and cauldron of controversy in the camp of litterateurs even as the political class is not unanimous in deciding the issue and the parents, the primary stakeholders and their children, the secondary stakeholders (or vice-versa), are mute witnesses to the goings on. The central point of the matter that figured during the just concluded All India Kannada Conference at Dharwad emerged was the earlier settled matter of favouring mother-tongue as the ideal medium of instruction to begin the education journey of the school-bound children.
The justification for prescribing English teaching in schools of Karnataka ostensibly to ensure a fail-safe future in life failed to gel with pro-Kannada camp. The argument by the Kannada protagonists that allowing English as one of the languages to be studied compulsorily would spell the death knell of Kannada is well-taken.
