Primary and Secondary Education Minister Tanveer Sait on Tuesday told the Legislative Council that the government is ready to make it mandatory for its employees to send their children to the government-run schools if the Opposition parties move a private bill in this regard.

Replying to a debate on poor infrastructure at the government-run schools, he said many states in the country have already enacted a legislation for this purpose. Everybody wants government jobs, but none of them wants to send their children to the government-run schools, he added.

Members of the Opposition parties, both the BJP and the JD(S), however did not immediately react to the minister’s statement.

Sait further said that he has proposed to the government to allow all the legislators to utilise up to 30% of their annual local area development fund for upgrading infrastructure at the government schools.
Besides, the government has been opening model government schools at the hobli level in order to attract students, he added.

Sait admitted that one of the reasons for decrease in enrolment of students in the government school is the implementation of Right to Education Act. The government will not hesitate to take action against the private schools if they collect exorbitant fee from the parents, he warned.