Closing of government Schools in Karnataka?
The step to close a considerable number of government schools has been initiated years back in Karnataka. However the move to do so is getting geared up now. The reason quoting is the less number of students. And the effect of this move is appearing in some other shape in our state and in the neighbouring states. The aided schools started preparing for close down! State Government shall soon engage an expert team to find out the ways and means to support the existence of the Government Schools and the State aided schools considering the beneficiaries – the children from economically weaker and the villages and other rural areas.
One side government is trying to make the primary education compulsory and free for the poor through various Act and Rules like RTE. Unfortunately the other side the responsible officials of the department of education itself is taking steps to close down the public schools; may be to reduce their work load?
The state government has initiated the project ‘Adoption of School’. But how many schools have been adopted so far? The basic concept of adoption and the privileges given to the individual or establishment who adopts the school are not at all attractive! They are treated as the investors without any benefits of social status or finance. We can very well understand that the rules for adopting a school are framed in such a way that nobody should come forward for it!
The basic intention of closing down of the government schools is to help the aided school management. All most all aided schools want to close their institutions as early as possible because most of them are situated at the prime localities where the real-estate value is booming like anything! They don’t have any income as such, other than the throw away amount given as the grant in aid and they are in pathetic condition. They don’t have any income. They had become the custodian of their prime property without even the market rent!
Their forefathers donated their property and invested huge amount for constructing the institution with an interest of providing education to the generations. They were facing heavy financial crunch all over their life. They might have utilized their personal income to run the school just because of their charity. Now their successors are being punished by the government. They are not even getting the rent amount in par with the market rate. The meager amount what they are getting as grant from the government will not be sufficient for doing white wash even. The amount of grant given by the government is based on the number of students. The number of admissions will be depending on the quality of education given. The government should think seriously and deeply why the parents are unwilling to send their children to government schools or aided schools. The aided school management is helpless in taking action on the teachers. The situation in government school is familiar to everybody. Teachers find more time to do their own business than teaching. It is true that the unaided schools are doing well. They can collect lakhs or rupees for even nursery classes as tuition fees, donations etc. Government doesn’t have any control on them, or the control is to collect bribe from them. Any rules and regulations can be managed with bribes in the department of public instruction!
The Government shall soon engage an expert team to find out the ways and means to support the existence of the Government Schools and the State aided schools considering the beneficiaries – the poor children from different walks of life. The RTE alone cannot support for the prime cause of providing primary education free fair and compulsory.
SK Nair
