Chief minister DK Shivakumar with school education minister Madhu Bangarappa at the Namma Shaale Namma Javabdari event on Wednesday
“If you cannot spend Rs 5-10 crore on constructing buildings, depute your skilled teachers to govt schools. Provide 10 teachers from your school and pay their salaries. Article 21A and the Right to Education Act, 2009, place a binding obligation on govt to ensure free, compulsory and quality elementary education. A statement signed by at least 12 academicians, including Prof A Murigeppa, state president of the Save Public Education Committee, accused govt of unfairly blaming teachers for the decline in education quality.
Do not sell off unused private school buses; give them to govt schools,” he said. Any arrangement that uses ‘adoption’ to surrender public control or dilute that obligation is an abdication of constitutional duty,” said development educationist Niranjanaradhya VP. Bengaluru: The state govt’s proposal to involve private schools in adopting govt schools to improve enrolment, learning outcomes and student retention has drawn criticism from educationists, parents’ groups and teachers’ representatives. They argue it amounts to shifting the state’s constitutional responsibility to private players. He suggested that private schools could provide teachers, school buses, laboratory equipment and computers. Schools that help develop govt institutions could also append their names to them. However, educationists questioned the rationale behind the proposal, arguing that govt cannot outsource its responsibility to provide quality public education through school-adoption arrangements. “The state cannot sign away its constitutional responsibility through a school-adoption MoU.
On Wednesday, chief minister DK Shivakumar , addressing a programme organised by the department of school education and literacy, urged private school managements to take up govt schools and contribute to their development.
If the state intends to pursue public-private partnership models, it should formulate a comprehensive policy with strong safeguards and accountability mechanisms, including per-student payments to participating institutions, an educator said.