The Karnataka government has proposed to make it compulsory for state government employees to send their children to government schools. The motive of this proposal is to raise the quality of education and facilities in government schools.
Karnataka’s education minister N Mahesh claimed that if officials sent their wards to government schools, it would make them ‘stakeholders’ in the betterment of the institutes. “We are considering bringing in a policy on the basis of a report to encourage enrolment in government schools. By making government employees enrol their wards in government schools, we hope to make them stakeholders in the betterment of these schools,” he told The Hindustan Times.
Image used for representational purpose only.
The government is also taking note of the legal implications of such a move. The government is making sure that they do not flout any judgments put in place by the Supreme Court before they make the proposal official.
In September 2017, the Kannada Development Authority (KDA) had released a report about making government schools stronger. The report had suggested that those “drawing salary from the government” must send their children to a government school. They had also made provisions for a punishment for those who don’t abide by this rule.
Image used for representational purpose only.
However, a report in ThePrint highlights how the proposal has drawn flak from educationists, who feel the decision is ‘neither feasible nor acceptable’. They believe that the rule should be made optional, like the Delhi government has.
R. Basavaraju of the Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement (GRAAM) told the news portal, “In India, rules are made to be broken. We don’t fall in line with a regimental thought process. There are a number of schools, but the important point to note is that everybody will ask for basic infrastructure and quality, which does not exist for now,”
