Govt schools suffer despite ministers assurances
BENGALURU: Even as Minister for School Education and Literacy Madhu Bangarappa said on the floor of the house that no government schools will be closed, two schools, Government Higher Primary School in Chananke Gowdana Doddi and Government Lower Primary School at Moggenahalli Doddi in Chennapatna taluk have stopped functioning. Shambu Gowda, a School Development and Monitoring Committe (SDMC) member working in Chennapatna taluk who has been fighting against shutting down government schools since 2003, said, Chananke Gowdana Doddi Village school had only two kids and one teacher and Moggenahaalli Doddi school had five students and one teacher. The department officials gave this as a reason and forcefully sent the children and teachers to Honganuru KPS school a few days ago. Both the schools were more than 60 years old. However, in opposition to the governments decision, five schools including Government Lower Primary School, Hosahalli, Higher Primary Schools in Kannidoddi, Ammalli Doddi, Sante Mogenahalli and Lower Primary school in Sunna Ghatta, have continued to work. As per records, there are 77, 82, 31, 100 and 80 children in these schools respectively. T Manjunath, a resident of Sante Mogenahalli, said, Our school children will remain with our school. Students here come from extremely poor backgrounds and they cannot afford to pay school fees or van fees. In the last academic year, 40 children from our village, Sante Mogenahalli joined Karnataka Public School in Honganuru. However, do not have any school bus facility. The minister has said that they would provide free bus facility to these children to travel to KPS schools. A person who owns a van in our village drop these kids to the schools and he charges Rs 800 per month for these students. He added, In order to attract new students from government school to their KPS school, the school management of KPS Honganuru school have started providing van services only to new students. The government has already released an order to close down five of our government schools and move these kids to KPS school but we will let the school function. He reminded how the Higher Primary School in Sante Mogengalli suffered damage due to heavy rains in 2022 and the school functioned in a temple for the rest of the academic year. Manjunath asked, After writing to various political leaders frequently, we got a grant of Rs 50 lakh through which a new building of the school was constructed and it is running smoothly now. We have classes from 1 to 7 and have sufficient water and toilet facilities. The midday meals are also provided and as villagers, we have always looked for ways to improve our school.
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