Kasargod: Malayalam-speaking teachers posted in Kannada-medium schools triggers row

Malayalam-speaking teachers, who do not know Kannada continue to be appointed in several Kannada-medium schools in the Kasargod district of Kerala, despite many attempts to flag this issue.

This has triggered a major controversy, as the Karnataka government has taken up this long-standing problem faced by Kasargod Kannadigas.

This row has been triggered after a Malayalam-speaking teacher, who doesn’t know Kannada, was recently appointed to teach social science in the Government Higher Secondary Kannada Medium School in Adoor, Kasaragod district.

The teacher Suhiri S, said media reports, knows very little Kannada but has to teach physics, biology and chemistry to the Kannada medium students of class 8, 9 and 10. The teacher reportedly uses a combination of Kannada, Malayalam and English in class, leaving the children completely at sea.

The students are upset that after losing valuable time during COVID, they now have to contend with a teacher who does not know Kannada.

The Karnataka Border Area Development Authority, a state government body, had an assurance from the Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan last year that Malayali teachers would not be appointed in Kannada medium schools and that he had spoken to the Kasargod deputy commissioner on the issue, has now decided to approach the district level committee set up to look after ‘minority linguistic issues’, said media reports.

They have also written to the Kasaragod district collector Bhandri Swagat Ranweerchand that only teachers who know Kannada language should be appointed in all Kannada-medium schools according to a government order.

The authority has also met the Karnataka minister for Kannada and Culture about this problem.

Also read: Vijayan terms Centre’s decision to cut Kerala’s borrowing limit as ‘sadistic’

Long-standing issue

The Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC), the government recruitment agency, and the department of education have been routinely hiring non-Kannada speakers as teachers for Kannada medium schools in Kasargod district, completely ignoring the protests of students and parents.

Despite a Kerala government order that has directed not to appoint teachers, who do not know Kannada to Kannada-medium schools of Kasaragod district, this continues to happen. Last year, there were more than six Kannada medium schools in Kasargod district, that had ineligible teachers.

The Kerala government has declared Kasargod and Manjeshwar as linguistic minority taluks. There are 439 Kannada medium schools which have 40,000 students. But, the PSC blithely continues to appoint non-Kannada speakers as teachers jeopardising the education of the students.

If the teachers are forced out of the school, they approach the Kerala administrative tribunal and get an order to reinstate them. The Kasargod education department is helpless since the PSC appoints teachers without knowledge of Kannada and the courts uphold these appointments.

According to a report on Onmanorama, for example, Suhiri had been appointed as the physical science teacher in government higher secondary school at Paivalike, another border panchayat in Kasargod. But, after the students and parents vehemently protested he was forced to go on leave without pay for six months. He then moved the Kerala Adminstrative Tribunal, which asked him to do a 10 month course in Kannada at the Central Institute of Indian languages in Mysuru.

Last year, he joined the school in Adoor in August, but he could not write Kannada.

The Kerala government, meanwhile, has said that there is a shortage of teachers who are proficient in Kannada in the areas bordering Karnataka. However, the Kerala government has also claimed that linguistic minority students are neither barred from learning their mother tongue nor forced to learn Malayalam.

In early September last year, the government appointed a non-Kannada-speaking teacher to teach social science in the Kannada division of the government secondary school in Udma. Parents and students staged a protest but truly they seem to be fighting a losing battle against the system.