Bommai govt gets ‘E’ grade in education sector, says report of civil rights group

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru:

Just when the Bommai government is gearing up to face Assembly polls, a report card on its performance in the education sector from 2018 claims it has been able to secure only an 'E' grade which is far from satisfactory. The report card was released by Bahutva Karnataka, a civil rights group on Wednesday. The group plans to release data on the state government’s performance in other sectors as well.

The report highlighted the government's failure to increase the budget for education, the communalization of education, the 'distortion' of history, and the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP). “The lack of consultation with teachers or the public created chaos over the implementation of NEP”, the report said. Niranjanaradhya, an activist of the group, said Karnataka is the second state after Andhra Pradesh in the south in terms of compliance with the Right to Education Act. The state’s average stands at 23.6 %, which is less than the national average of 25.5%.

According to the report, the level of learning in the state has deteriorated to 8.6% in 2022 from 19.3% in 2018, in class 3. It also claimed that the closure of government schools for two years led to huge learning gaps which the government hasn’t addressed yet.As high as 57.7% of teaching posts are lying vacant in the state, the highest in the nation, it claimed. Amina, a student rights activist, said that the state government had declared a war on education, adding that it is necessary to fight government moves on this front. “Muslim girls are not allowed inside the classrooms wearing a hijab”, she lamented.

Claiming that the government plans to shut down 13,000 government schools in the state, the activists said the government is planning to set up six new private universities without adequate discussion and at a time when Kannada University is on the verge of closure due to lack of funds. ''Scholarships for SC / ST, BC, and OBC students are delayed or have been stopped. Reservation for Muslim students is removed arbitrarily. Hostels run by the Department of Social Welfare for disadvantaged groups are underfunded and mismanaged”, the report added.