Daijiworld Media Network - Kasargod (SP)
Kasargod, Jan 16: The government has again begun its habit of posting Malayali mother tongue teachers to Kannada medium schools located in border areas of Karnataka and Kerala. Even though the Kannada teachers protested against this, the Malayali teacher attended Kannada medium school on Tuesday with police protection but the Kannadiga students did not allow her to conduct classes.
Uduma Fisheries Higher Secondary School in the district has classes from fifth to tenth standards. In this school where the medium of instruction is Kannada, over a hundred Kannadiga students study. During October last, a Malayali language teacher had been posted here to teach social science but the students and parents had held protest for four days seeking to withdraw her transfer order. The department had then sent the teacher on three months’ vacation.
Uduma Fisheries Higher Secondary School (file photo)
The teacher, at the end of her vacation, came to the school on Tuesday but the students boycotted classes and held protest. The parents too came to the school later. The teacher then got police protection and entered the school but the students and teachers expressed their determination not to allow Malayali teacher to take classes. The parents complained that the police chided the students with derogatory words on this occasion.
The teacher posted now knows only Malayalam and she continued to be seated in the teachers’ room on account of protest on Tuesday, and did not conduct classes. The teacher, who was sent on leave, has not learnt Kannada. If she teaches in Malayalam, the students do not understand. Therefore, students, parents and Kannada organizations had demanded to post Kannadiga teachers to the school. The promise made by education minster Prof Raveendranathan to fulfill this demand, has not been met.
It is said that by misusing certain provisions in Kerala State Public Services Commission, method of examination and interviews, 23 Malayali teachers have bagged jobs by getting included under Kannada teachers although they do not know Kannada. This is giving rise to friction between the Kannada and Malayali teachers in Kannada schools.
In the past, when Malayali teachers were posted to four higher secondary schools run in Kannada medium, the government had sent such teachers on leave. A few teachers had resigned from jobs and returned to their original vocations. Two had opted to learn Kannada at Mysuru.
The teachers who went on leave are reporting back for duties one by one but they have not learnt Kannada. In the girls’ high school as Hosdurg, Malayali language teacher is teaching mathematics to Kannada students. Similar situation exists in Bekal fisheries school. The border area Kannadigas seem to have become helpless in the face of posting of Malayalam teachers by the stubborn government there.