142 govt schools shut in Uttara Kannada over 17 years

Karwar: As many as 142 government schools in the border district of Uttara Kannada (U-K) have been shut in the past seventeen years. In addition to parents enrolling their children in private schools in the district, some are sending their kids to private institutions in neighbouring Goa.

Kannada-medium schools that were once the solitary educational institutions in small idyllic villages in Karwar and Joida taluks are among those that have had to be closed down owing to parents’ shifting priorities.

While 31 schools in Karwar taluk, which borders Goa, have shut down, the shutters have come down on 14 schools in Joida.

A senior official in the Education Department lamented the downward spiral in enrolment at government schools in Uttara Kannada district over the past decade-and-a-half. “The situation has only worsened in the past five years. Nearly 45% of the schools that have been shut recorded zero enrolment,” the official said.

Social activist Kishan Kamble pointed out that many people in villages bordering Goa such as Maajali, Sadashivagad and Asnoti in Karwar, and Digli in Joida were either migrating to Goa in search of work, or were sending their children to private schools in the neighbouring state.

“Parents are enrolling their children at schools in Lolem and other nearby places in Goa. Parents working in Goa seem to prefer enrolling their children in schools there impacting admissions to both government and government-aided schools in the border district,” Kamble said.