Pvt school students to get extra marks if their parents vote

To draw more parents towards the polling booths, a number of private schools in the state have taken a call to provide additional marks to students whose parents have voted.

As many as 3,000 schools under the Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS) have agreed to give two marks each for a student whose parents shows proof of having voted.

“The student would be given an additional 2 marks, per parent during the mid-term examinations if parents come to schools on the day of voting and show their inked finger. Parents will be given a slip of paper on which the student’s details are entered and the same would be considered while awarding marks,” said Shashi Kumar, general secretary, KAMS.

This was started as a pilot project at Blossoms school during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and has been extended to the other member schools after the pilot model was successful, said Shashi Kumar. While the higher class students would be given marks, parents of pre-KG classes would get a chance to participate in a lucky draw if they show the inked finger.

“When we started off, out of 1,800 parents, we saw only 90 turn up to schools and show proof of they having having voted. Last year, however, during the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike elections, 1,700 out of 1900-plus parents had voted,” he said.

“This is being done in an attempt to encourage parents to vote. Many of them head out of the city. Now that their children would get perks at school for their vote, we hope that many would turn up and vote,” said Kumar.