BBMP asks education dept to take over its schools

With a shortage in teaching staff posing challenges in running its schools, the BBMP has reportedly urged the Department of School Education and Literacy to take over its schools and pre-university colleges.

Senior BBMP officials said the request has been made "casually". But department officials who met their BBMP counterparts on Monday admitted that no decision had been made. On the contrary, they offered their services to the BBMP to improve the quality of their schools.

"The decision to take over the civic body-run schools has to be taken at a higher level and we can just extend our services," said a senior official of the department.

School education officials admitted that the takeover issue featured during Monday’s meeting, but they told BBMP officials that they would get back after ascertaining the financial implications.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) currently runs 16 primary, 33 high schools and 18 PU colleges with a student strength of 20,000. The institutions are beset by shortage of teaching staff, who are mostly contractual workers.