The ‘English’ push: Karnataka to expand bilingual medium of instruction system to more govt schools in new academic year

The bilingual medium of instruction in government schools was introduced in 2018-19 during the tenure of the Congress-JDS government with H D Kumaraswamy of the JDS as the chief minister, as a measure to arrest dwindling numbers of students in government schools. The policy has subsequently been carried forward by the BJP and the Congress governments.

There are 41,088 government primary schools in Karnataka and 5,024 high schools, according to official data. The bilingual medium of instruction policy is also being adopted for the Karnataka Public Schools that are being created with the upgradation of existing schools and establishment of new schools, Madhu Bangarappa told the legislature.

There are over 500 KPS schools in Karnataka, and 100 Urdu medium government schools and Maulana Azad schools with high enrollment have been upgraded to KPS schools.

“From the 2026-27 academic year, KPS schools are adopting a single-class textbook-based bilingual medium of instruction from LKG to 5th standard,” the school education minister said.

“All KPS schools in the state, all PM Shri schools, all government schools that have started bilingual classes, all government schools that have started pre-primary classes, all government schools in mining-affected taluks….and all government schools in 15 districts….are being provided with single-class bilingual text books for classes 1 to 5,” the minister said.

“There has been a realization at the education department level that English is the language of emancipation and the aspiration of families. All government schools in Karnataka have gradually become bilingual,” said a social worker working with state schools in Bengaluru.

800 schools to be upgraded into Karnataka Public Schools

In the coming year, Karnataka is planning to upgrade 474 government schools into Karnataka Public Schools, as well as 200 government schools in the Kalyana Karnataka Region, and 100 schools in mining-affected areas.

The upgradation of the nearly 800 government schools in the state is being done at an estimated cost of ₹3,200 crore through the support of the Asian Development Bank, the Kalyana Karnataka Region Development Board, and the Karnataka Mining Environment Restoration Corporation.

“The main objective of the Karnataka Public Schools is to provide quality education from the pre-primary to the pre-university level under one roof, improving the enrollment in schools by providing all necessary facilities and quality education, and reducing the number of students dropping out of school,” the education department has stated.

45,179 vacancies in primary schools in 2025-26

While school infrastructure is seeing improvement, one of the biggest factors affecting education in Karnataka is the lack of sufficient teachers in government schools.

The school education department has reported 45,179 vacancies in primary schools and 13,045 in high schools in the 2025-26 academic year. As many as 43,526 teachers were employed on a guest teacher basis in government schools during this period.

As per the state budget announcement, steps are being taken to fill 15,000 vacant posts in government schools.