Question

The Gokak committee report recommended that in the 3 language formula, Kannada should be the ………… Language
A. 1st
B. 2nd
C. 3rd
D. optional

Answer 1

Hint: V.K. Gokak was the chairperson of the committee which made several recommendations including recommending that priority should be given to Kannada and that it should be made compulsory in education.

Complete answer: V.K. Gokak was the chairperson of the committee which looked at the recommendations in the language policy in the Indian education system. The committee recommended that priority should be given to Kannada and that it should be made compulsory in education. It also recommended that in the three-language formula, Kannada should be the first language with 125 marks. The Gokak agitation was a successful language rights agitation in the 1980s that fought for the first-language status of the Kannada language in the South Indian state of Karnataka.
It was named after the committee headed by Dr V K Gokak that had recommended giving primacy to Kannada in state schools. It talked about several revolutionary changes in the education policy of India. The focus was given to primary education and the effects of primary education on a child. The recommendations mainly focused on the native language of the state which is considered essential for a child in his earlier education in school. So these recommendations were accepted at some level in the primary education system.
Let’s examine the options one by one :
A. Option A is correct. V K Gokak committee made several recommendations for the new language policy of education which talked about Kannada should be the first language in this education policy. These recommendations were accepted and Kannada was given the status of the first language for education at the primary level in the schools.
B. The option B which argued that in the 3 language formula, Kannada should be the 2nd language is wrong. Kannada was recommended as the first language with 125 marks in the recommendations made by the V K Gokak committee. So this option is not correct.
C. This option is not correct because the recommendation was not to make Kannada the 3rd language but it was the first recommended language. Kannada was given the preference with 125 marks and other languages were given other preferences with fewer marks then Kannada.
D. The option D is also not correct because it argues that Kannada was given the status of optional language in the recommendation of the 3 language policy which is wrong. In these recommendations, Kannda was not considered as an optional language but it was considered as the most important language in the 3 language education policy at the primary level. Hence this option is wrong.
So, option A is correct.

Note: V K Gokak committee gave the preference to the Kannada language in the 3 language education policy so try to remember that Kannada was given the highest marks of 125 in comparison with other languages in the primary education policy particularly.