Govt to set up residential schools for workers' kids

The Labour department has planned to establish residential schools in 10 corporations in the State exclusively for workers’ children.

Labour Minister P T Parameshwar Naik on Wednesday said that the responsibility of running the school will be handed over to the management of the Delhi Public School (DPS), an English medium school.

With an allocation of no less than Rs three crore per school, the institutions will cater to children of all working classes, specifically construction workers. The institutes will provide affordable education to students from class 5 to II PUC.

Land for the proposed residential schools has already been identified in Bellary, Hubli, Bangalore and Mysore.

"We have written to the deputy commissioners of all other districts which have a corporation, to identify land and hand it over to the government," said Naik.

When asked if the move to hand over the reigns to the DPS management would benefit the Congress leaders who are part of it, Naik said: "I never knew that it would. It was a proposal suggested by senior bureaucrats in my department, keeping in mind the quality of education." Union Minister K Rahman Khan is in the managing committee of DPS, Bangalore, according to information hosted on the school’s website.

It is said that the decision to start these residential schools have been given in-principle approval by the chief minister and the construction board will finalise the finances. "We have Rs 2,066 crore, collected by way of cess from various construction projects. Money is no constraint for our projects," said Naik.

In total, the department has earmarked Rs 200 crore for educational facilities for workers’ children in the State.

Naik said the government has already allocated Rs 200 crore towards the construction of Sir M Visvesvaraya Construction Academy, which is said to be the second such training institute for blue-collared workers in the country, after Hyderabad.

The Labour department has also proposed 100 tradecraft training centres each worth Rs two crore.