Karnataka: Civil rights group gives ‘fail’ grade to BJP govt in education sector

Addressing a press conference Wednesday, the Bhautva Karnataka forum consisting of education experts and student activists stated that the report card is an outcome of an evaluation based on the performance of the government in relation to its own goals and the constitutional vision of education.

Education expert VP Niranjanaradhya pointed out that Karnataka’s compliance with the Right to Education Act is only 23.6 per cent, which is less than the national average (25.5 per cent). Karnataka is just second to Andhra Pradesh among the southern states in terms of compliance with the RTE Act.

The forum also pointed out that the government has shut down over 150 government schools since 2019. Niranjanaradhya highlighted that Karnataka had 49,834 government schools in 2019-2020, which was reduced to 49,679 in 2021-22.

The report card highlighted that Karnataka has the highest number of teacher vacancies (57.7 per cent) in the country.

Niranjanaradhya said, “The lack of infrastructure, and single-teacher schools, have caused low enrolment in government schools and impacted the learning abilities of the students. Even after 75 years of Independence, we still have 2,064 primary government schools that have single teachers. In addition, 579 high schools in Karnataka (Classes 1-7) have a single teacher teaching for all classes.”

In addition, the education experts addressed the issue of delay or non-payment of scholarships for SC, ST, and OBC students. “Pre-Matric scholarships have also been delayed. Scholarships for informal workers’ children have ceased as have the Maulana Azad National Fellowships which were fellowships for Muslim students,” the report says.

The report card also highlighted the hijab ban issue that allegedly affected the education of Muslim girls in the state, especially in the Udupi and Dakshina Kannada regions.

“The government itself admitted in the Assembly that 1,010 students had dropped out of high school and college. Another report indicates that approximately 17,000 Muslim girls have dropped out of college as a result of the tensions created around the hijab issue,” the report states.

As for higher education, the forum alleged that the government permitted six new private universities to be set up without adequate discussion and review in the Assembly and the underfunding for prestigious universities has left them in a dire state. “Universities with a proven track record of good education, such as the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) has been expected to generate its own revenue and the institution is currently in a dire state. Similarly, Kannada University is on the verge of closure due to lack of funds,” the report claims.

The forum also alleged that the state government made attempts to revise the curriculum with the help of members of Sangh Parivar.