Two Congress leaders on Monday urged the State government not to close down or merge Kannada-medium government schools citing poor student strength.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister Kimmane Ratnakar had recently stated that the merger of schools was inevitable if student strength is low. Visveshwara Hegde Kageri, who was the Primary and Secondary Education minister during the BJP regime, had initiated the merger of schools stating that such a measure was suggested under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Addressing reporters here, KPCC vice president B K Chandrashekar and general secretary L Hanumanthaiah said the previous government was eager to close down
Kannada medium schools and even the present minister is advocating the same.
According to the government, from 2005-12, total enrolment for Class 1 to 8 was 78 lakh. But in 2012-13, the enrolment for Class 2 to 8, is 72 lakh. “The number of dropouts is shown as 51,000. But, statistics show that six lakh students have dropped out. The government must explain this. Besides, before talking about merger of schools, it should publish a paper explaining the real position so that people can participate in discussions,” Chandrashekar said.
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