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 neighboring 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 lakh of 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
