BANGALORE: The Government has decided to enforce the orders against using schoolchildren at public functions, and schools violating the order could face withdrawal of recognition.

Based on the directions of Minister for Primary and Secondary Education R. Ramalinga Reddy, the Commissioner for Education issued circulars to schools in June last that children should not be made to line up at public functions, political programmes in particular. However, a number of schools are not implementing the directive, and children are being forced to help organise public functions. The Government has decided to hold heads of educational institutions responsible for violations, he added.

The Minister told presspersons here on Monday that a school in Pandavapura in Mandya district, which organised a public function last month with the help of children, will face withdrawal of recognition. Action has been initiated against the school concerned, he said and added that children can only participate in programmes related to their schools.

On the shortage of Kannada teachers in government schools, he said teachers have been deputed to schools from other places. Nearly 2,500 teachers who were appointed recently will report for duty after the Dasara vacation. There are 4,000 vacancies of schoolteachers, and appointments will be completed by December, Mr. Ramalinga Reddy said.

He said the funds set apart for developmental works, including construction of school buildings, classrooms, and laboratories have been made over to zilla and taluk panchayats, and the Education Department is monitoring the implementation of the programme.

A sum of Rs. 114 crores has been spent on building 7,500 additional classrooms, Rs. 25 crores on school buildings and Rs. 30 crores on the construction of 6,000 kitchens in schools to implement the midday meal scheme.

An additional 13,000 rooms will be built next financial year. The cost of construction of each classroom is Rs. 1.5 lakhs, he said.

The Education Department, Mr. Ramalinga Reddy said, plans to conduct adalats at the block, district and divisional levels to improve its efficiency, attend to grievances of staff, and ensure transparency in administration. He will preside over adalats conducted at the divisional level.

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