Karnataka mulling rule to make netas, babus send kids to govt schools

The state government is considering a proposal to make it mandatory for the elected representatives and the officials to send their children to government schools, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Tanveer Sait informed the Legislative Council on Friday.

"The Kannada Development Authority has recommended this and it is being studied," Sait said.

Congress MLC G Raghu Achar has sought to table a private Bill mandating the government officials to send their children to the government schools. Achar briefly staged a protest by sitting in the well of the House when Council Chairman D H Shankaramurthy did not allow his private Bill to be tabled, citing rules.

"Our department will okay this private Bill when it comes to us and the government has expressed its willingness to support it. The government is even ready to table a Bill to this effect," the minister said.

In August 2015, the Allahabad High Court had directed the Uttar Pradesh chief secretary to ensure government servants send their children to state-run primary schools.

The Centre for Child and the Law (CCL) at the premier National Law School of India University has supported Achar's private Bill. "The first step in strengthening public education system will be to have government servants and elected representatives to send their children to government schools. This argument is at least a decade old," CCL fellow and educationist V P Niranjan Aradhya said.