Bengaluru: Amidst severe opposition from several writers and Kannada activist, the State Government on Tuesday issued an order on starting English medium classes in a thousand Government Schools across the State from this academic year itself.

The Government notification in this regard also mentions starting of 100 Public Schools and Pre-Primary Schools (Nursery Schools).

The thousand schools teaching English Medium are distributed across all 176 taluks of the State.

The Government Schools, which had only Kannada medium of instruction, will now have additional English medium of instruction. By starting English medium classes, the Government hopes to attract more children and also popularise Government   Schools. The English medium classes will follow NCERT books for English and Maths subject and Karnataka State syllabus for Environmental Studies and Kannada subjects. The teachers appointed to teach English medium classes are trained at the Regional Institute of English.

Apart from introduction of English medium instruction in Government Schools, the Government is going to start 100 new Karnataka Public Schools at different locations across the State, aimed at imparting quality education to children.