Stakeholders oppose Karnataka govt.’s move to make private schools adopt govt. schools

The Save Public Education Committee and the All India Democratic Students’ Organisation (AIDSO) termed the initiative an attempt by the State government to shut down government schools.

Educationalists, student organisations, academicians, teachers and other stakeholders have criticised the State government’s plan to link government schools with private schools through adoption.

Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar recently held a meeting with private schools and companies, where he proposed the adoption of government schools by private schools and other firms under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds.

“We strongly condemn this anti-people move. The government has allowed private schools to even tag their names to adopted government schools. By doing this, the government is trying to escape its responsibility to address the deficiencies in the public education system,” the committee said.

The committee also condemned remarks allegedly made by representatives of private schools at the meeting against government school teachers, including by Aishwarya DKS Hegde, daughter of Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and Trustee Secretary of the National Education Foundation. “During the interaction, they said the quality of teachers in government schools is low. They shifted the entire blame onto teachers while ignoring the role of the government’s own policies in creating the situation,” the committee said.

Meanwhile, teachers have expressed displeasure over the remarks. “Teachers are burdened with non-academic work. For example, this year we were deputed for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) work. We have been stuck with non-academic work for a year now, and the national census is due next year. Private school teachers do not have to do such work,” a government school teacher said.

A.H. Ningegowda, president of the Karnataka State Pre-University Lecturers’ Association, urged the government to fill vacant posts first and allow teachers to do their work instead of criticising them.