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Article History

Received: 6 May 2025

Accepted: 25 August 2025

First Online: 1 December 2025

Declarations

:

: This is part of a PhD research which involved experimental method with innovative bilingual approach to teaching of mathematics. This was done exclusively by the author, who has a teaching experience of 16 years and is a bilingual expert. PhD protocol was approved by university’s research approval committee. The University was part of CLIL@India project also and partnered with other universities. The proposed five-pillar CLIL model was conceptualized, designed, and implemented by the authors. It was carried out in accordance with relevant educational guidelines and local regulations. The study required the background of Kannada as `a second language of study’ in the participants. As NEP 2020 recommends the mother tongue based bilingual approach for core subjects, this study was a positive step towards its trial and resource development. Formal written permission was obtained from the Department of Education, Government of Karnataka, through the Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI). This official approval covered both government schools (via departmental channels) and private/aided institutions (upon submission of individual applications). The DDPI signed the permission letter for taking up the project and provided the data of entire set of schools available in three districts chosen. As the research intervention was integrated within the standard school curriculum and did not involve any intrusive procedures, identifiable personal data, or deviation from normal educational activity, an Institutional Ethics Committee or IRB review was not separately obtained, and under local policies governing public education research, this was not required. The process was fully aligned with the guidelines of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which advocates mother tongue-based bilingual instruction. A complete set of approval documents from the Department of Education is provided below for your reference. . At the next step, the chosen schools were issued an official note and e mail from DDPI office, that the project is permitted. The government schools considered this itself as an official note, whereas the Private/ Aided schools required a separate application from the researcher (mentioning the dates of research) as well. The lesson chosen was `Quadrilaterals’ which was matched with the annual plan at school and thus was integrated to school curriculum, with school’s support. Individual participants were not involved in the study, though participant-responses (using a questionnaire), were collected at the culmination of the project. This did not mandate the individual informed consent from participants. However, for the purpose of maintaining confidentiality, the names of all schools and districts have been replaced with pseudonyms. The research-activities were taken as a part of school curriculum. Enrichment materials in the form of videos, PPTs, evaluation materials (Quiz) interactive mathematics manipulatives were all prepared by the author and researchers. The lesson plan, Teacher-notes, tools etc. were also planned, prepared by the author and researchers and validated by group of expert educationalists. The evaluation tool was piloted before the actual trial. Until this stage, the ethical committee approval was not mandatory at any stage of the research. This PhD Research was consistent with NEP implementation and hence was welcomed and encouraged. The University was part of CLIL@India project also and partnered with other universities. The research design did not involve individual interviews, biological samples, or collection of sensitive personal data. All data were gathered anonymously through standardized pre- and post-assessments and an anonymized questionnaire, conducted as part of classroom activities. Institutional written consent was obtained from the participating schools and relevant educational authorities, which is considered valid and sufficient for curriculum-integrated educational studies involving children under 18 years of age, as per local regulatory practices. No child was singled out or subjected to any experimental condition outside of the standard teaching framework.

: The Dept. of education, the heads of the individual schools permitted the integration of this research into school’s schedule and curriculum. They provided full support (including the ICT support) by comfortably accommodating the experimental classes.

: All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

: The authors declare no competing interests.