Karnataka to Add 4000 More Bilingual Schools

March 31, 2025, 3:43 p.m.

The Karnataka government plans to introduce bilingual education in 4000 more government schools. This venture is by adding English-medium sections alongside Kannada-medium sections to improve fluency of students in both languages. This expansion clearly follows the success of the bilingual model launched by HD Kumaraswamy earlier in 2019, and now includes 4190 schools. Education experts have welcomed the move wholeheartedly saying that this truly helps stabilise student enrollment in government schools. But, Ravinarayan Chakrakodi, professor at the Regional Institute of English, Bengaluru, highlighted the need for adequate teacher training & timely resource allocation.

In addition to bilingual schools, the government will start pre-primary classes in 5000 more schools at a cost of Rs 70 crore, following the positive response from 2619 government schools that already have such classes, catering to 90195 children. The state also plans to establish 500 new Karnataka Public Schools with an investment of Rs 2500 crore, supported by the Asian Development Bank. Furthermore, 36 German Labs will be set up to train 20000 students in German, alongside introducing German, Italian & Spanish to all nursing students in the state.

With Rs 2500 crore from the World Bank allocated to strengthen first-grade colleges and establish a center of excellence over the next four years, the higher education will also get a boost. Additionally, 5267 schoolteachers will be recruited in the Kalyana Karnataka region. However, critics argue that this number is insufficient to address the 59000 vacant teaching positions across the state. Alongside, concerns have been raised about inadequate budget allocation for scholarships & higher education lecturers.