Grant-in-aid high schools facing hard time hiring teachers

Grant-in-aid high schools across the State have been facing a hard time hiring teachers and paying their salaries ever since the government decided to grant funds towards paying salaries of teachers recruited prior to 2008.  

Bethany Educational Society has more than 20 aided high schools across the State. In these it has more than 40 vacancies for teachers.

“In some schools there are no mathematics teachers at all. Most teachers have been hired by the management. We have not been able to pay them on a par with government salaries,” said,  Sister Jeevan B S, Deputy Secretary, Bethany Education Society. 

To give an example of the gravity of the situation, there are as many as 1,512 vacancies in aided high schools only in Bangalore and Mysore division that fell after 2008 according to officials. The government, however, may not be filing these vacancies anytime soon.

December 31, 2008, was the date when the government decided to stop funds towards grant in aid high schools in the State. A number of reasons have been given for this.
“The number of children in these schools has been dwindling over the years with more children opting for schools under central boards such as CBSE and ICSE.

This, in turn, may be due to the fact that most government aided high schools teach in Kannada medium and many students opt for English medium schools,” an offical said.
Another reason attributed is economics and government’s austerity drive.

Private Schools Headmaster’s Association Secretary Khan, whose organisation includes a number of aided schools, differs.

According to him earlier most aided high schools had three classes clubbed together — 8, 9 and 10.

However, with the inception of national education schemes in the State like Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE), it led to students of 8th standard being retained in higher primary classes instead of high schools.

“The government also gave permission to start a number of high schools with junior colleges. As a result, these aided high schools no longer got the required strength and the number of students dwindled,” he opined.