Education in any community must begin with an understanding of that community. When the British introduced their schooling system, they studied Indian languages and cultures. They emphasized grammar and local languages, although they encouraged education in English. They produced a large number of grammar books and dictionaries for many Indian languages, including minor and tribal ones.
Modern India has made education a fundamental right. The National Education Policy emphasizes that children should learn in their mother tongue. Linguists confirm that education in the mother tongue promotes intellectual and emotional growth. Among the many reasons for the educational backwardness of the region, the language stands out as a key.
Education should lead students from the “known to the unknown”. When children learn unfamiliar concepts in an unfamiliar language, learning suffers. Therefore, connecting the child’s mother tongue with the language of the textbooks is vital for real educational growth. Language is the most important means of education, yet it is rarely treated with the seriousness it deserves.
A special case of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region
The Hyderabad-Karnataka region represents one of the most complex and linguistic environments in Karnataka. Unlike other linguistically diverse regions such as the coastal belt, linguistic density and diversity here have deeper historical and sociocultural roots. Any planning, especially in the field of education and textbook development, must recognize this multilingual reality.
Multilingualism means that several languages coexist in mutual influence, exchange vocabulary and grammar, and shape social spaces through interaction. Without understanding these dynamics, no education system can cater to this region.
Kannada itself contains several dialects, many of which show significant gaps in mutual intelligibility. Standard Kannada as used in textbooks has little in common with the spoken varieties of the region and differs significantly from most other dialects in the state. Additionally, exposure to Standard Kannada varies widely from region to region, with the Hyderabad-Karnataka region remaining among the least exposed compared to any other part of the state.
Scholars have identified at least four dialects in this area – Bidar Kannada, Kalaburagi Kannada, Raichur-Yadgir Kannada and Maski Kannada. These show significant differences not only from what is called “Standard Kannada” but also from each other. Field linguists often report that local speakers say, “We don’t understand your Kannada,” revealing a large gap. This gap is evident in vocabulary, grammar and intonation.
These dialects, which shape children’s daily lives, begin to disappear as soon as they enter school and often become objects of shame. Many teachers struggle with ‘Standard Kannada’ themselves, but the authority of the Kannada textbook forces them to devalue their own language.
Local languages and dialects are given little attention in schools. As a result, the world children know at home and the world presented in textbooks remain disconnected. When students enter school, they encounter an unfamiliar language environment without any bridge to help them make the transition. The absence of such effort creates a gap between school life and real life, leaving children insecure and disengaged.
This bridging exercise must begin at the primary level to help students connect their home language with Standard Kannada or Kannada used in textbooks. Once children are able to engage in education through their own linguistic diversity, this will lead to a significant qualitative improvement in learning outcomes.
From the first stage of schooling, children are faced with a foreign language environment. This alienation breeds disinterest and eventually causes many to leave. The system marks them as “unclosed schools”, thereby masking its own failure. They are actually “squeezed out” rather than “released”. Many students struggle up to class 10 and end up parting ways with their education after receiving a fail certificate. Ironically, many of these so-called failures succeed later in life.
Some students manage to pass 10th standard by individual skill, talent or special training. Many others develop psychological and social difficulties. Disconnecting children from their native dialects and forcing them to adapt to standard Kannada without sensitivity to their linguistic background at a child’s early age has a profound psychological impact, an issue that has never been systematically explored in the field. Such neglect continues to cause silent damage to entire generations.
What can be done
As a result, education is largely unaffordable for the children of Hyderabad-Karnataka, leaving them an education-deprived community. Urgent measures specific to individual regions are therefore necessary to address this situation. Some key steps include:
1. Study of the language environment of the region in order to shape the curriculum design.
2. Documenting Kannada dialects and integrating them into the curriculum.
3. Reflection of regional language and culture in textbook content and examples.
4. Promoting the use of mother tongues or local dialects in early school age.
5. Appointment of local teachers familiar with regional dialects and cultures.
6. Development of bridging courses to help students move from dialects to standard Kannada or English.
7. Linking the world view of children in the home language with formal education.
8. Preparation of regional dialect dictionaries.
9. Compilation of dictionaries of local dialects.
10. Creation of teacher training materials for language transition programs.
Real progress
The implementation of these measures can create an environment where every child in the region has access to education as a true fundamental right that will ensure real progress in education. To achieve this, researchers involved in global linguistics and education research should design a well-structured pilot program.
In support of these arguments, Grade 10 results in the region consistently show poor performance. All talukas from the Hyderabad-Karnataka region rank at the bottom of the state list. Sindhanur (64.18%) and Bhalki (58.36%) are the only ones in the top 150, while most others fall below 170th, reflecting widespread educational underdevelopment.
District-level results are equally poor, Kalaburagi (34.58%), Yadgir (44.21%), Raichur (45.23%), Bidar (49.13%) and Koppal (50.27%).
In contrast, coastal districts like Dakshina Kannada (87.58%), Udupi (83.40%) and Uttara Kannada (80.34%) lead the state, highlighting the stark disparity in education.
(The author is Professor of Kannada, Central University of Karnataka, Kalaburagi)
