Government puts off closure of de-recognized schools till end of academic year

In a major relief to hundreds of thousands of students studying in the 1,420 de-recognized primary schools and their parents, the Karnataka Government has decided to put off the closure of these schools till the end of ensuing academic year.

The Government’s volte face on the closure of schools came about after Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Basavaraj Horatti was pushed into a corner by not only the parents of the students and the school managements, but also his own partymen. Finally, Horatti relented to the pressure and agreed to allow the defaulting schools to continue imparting education till April 2007 by when the current academic year ends.

Making the announcement in the Legislative Council in Belgaum, Horatti said though the de-recognized schools will be allowed to continue till April 2007 in the interest of the students, the Government will not go back on its decision to close down these schools, which had violated the language policy. “We have taken this decision only to provide relief to the students and their families”, he said.

The Government had ordered 1,420 schools to shut down after they were found violating the language policy of the State. Though they had given an undertaking that their medium of instruction would be Kannada at the time of obtaining Government license in 1994, they had switched over to English medium of instruction.

Though the Government issued notices to these schools for flouting the language policy during March 2004, there had been no response from the managements. “So, we have decided to close them down. We are providing some relief to them as the closure of the schools during the middle of the term would affect 270,000 students”, he said.

Horatti also took the opportunity to clarify that the Government was not opposed imparting education in English medium of instruction, but the schools should impart education in the medium for which they have been given permission. “Many of these schools do not have qualified teachers”, he rued.

Meanwhile, the Government’s decision to defer the closure of schools till the end of the academic year has brought smiles on the faces of the managements of schools that had been de-recognized. “It is a welcome move. This was exactly what we sought for from Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy when we met him earlier this week. We told him not to punish the students for no fault of theirs”, General Secretary of Associated Managements of English Medium Schools K S Krishna Iyer said.

The President of Karnataka Unaided Schools Management Association G S Sharma said the media had played an important role in bringing about a change of heart in the Government. “I met former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and he admitted that the Education Ministry had taken a hasty decision”, Sharma said.

The Government’s decision not to close down the schools till the end of the academic year gives their managements enough time to plan for their future course of action, Sharma added.