Govt in slumber, 657 primary schools face shutdown

BENGALURU: Blame it on parents' growing inclination towards private schools or government's apathy, more Kannada medium primary schools in the state are staring at a bleak future. If the government fails to improve the situation forthwith, 657 schools where the students' strength is very low (between 0 and 5) are likely to be shut down this year. Last year, 654 schools were closed.
There are 1,000 schools with students' strength between 5 and 10, and 15,000 schools with 0 and 30. This means by next academic year, more schools are likely to come under the 0-5 category. Out of 44,110 primary schools, only 337 are fairly packed with 500 and above students.
A senior official in primary and education department said after the introduction of the Right to Education (RTE) quota, parents are attracted to English medium private schools.
Due to closing down of schools, 15,000 teachers had to be shifted to other schools last year. If this trend continues, it will affect recruitment of new teachers, said a source in the department.
Every year, around one lakh students from economically poor sections join private schools under RTE quota.
RTE not to blame
VP Niranjan Aradhya, fellow at the Centre for Child and the Law, National Law School of India University, said introduction of RTE cannot be the only reason for decreasing strength in government primary schools. "The department should teach English effectively. The competency level of English teachers must be good. By correcting these mistakes, the department can check the decline of government schools," he said.
Echoing the same, D Shashi Kumar, general secretary of the Associated Managements of Government Recognized English Medium Schools in Karnataka (KAMS), said: "Even before RTE was implemented in 2012, the admission to government private schools had been dipping by around 10 to 20%. Lack of quality teaching has to blamed. This could be the reason why many government school teachers are also sending their children to private schools."