Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Need for quality education stressed

Special Correspondent

`School management committees can play a major role in ensuring it'

STUDY: Project director of Sarva Shikshana Abhiyana L.K. Atheeq (second from left) releasing the `Citizens report on the status of education in Gulbarga district' in Gulbarga on Wednesday. Commissioner of Public Instruction M. Madangopal (second from right) is seen.

GULBARGA: Commissioner of Public Instruction M. Madangopal has stressed the need for involvement of all sections to improve the quality of the education imparted in government schools. The School Development and Management Committee (SDMC) should have a greater role in ensuring quality education.

He was releasing the "Citizens report on the status of education in Gulbarga district" prepared and published by "Movement for Alternative and Youth Awareness" (MAYA), at the zilla panchayat meeting hall here on Wednesday.

MAYA is a non-governmental organisation working in the field of improving the quality of education in rural areas and identifying problems confronting government schools.

Mr. Madangopal said that the quality of education in the State would remain an unresolved issue if the present apathy of society towards government schools continued. The Government was spending huge amounts of the taxpayers' money on primary and higher secondary education. It should be put to proper use and not allowed to go down the drain, he said.

The Government was spending Rs. 253 crore in Gulbarga Division alone for improvement of infrastructure, constructing classrooms and giving a facelift to schools, But all this would not be of any use if the quality of the education imparted was bad, he said.

Mr. Madangopal said SDMCs were bothered only about vacancies of teacher posts, lack of class rooms and other infrastructure facilities. According to the quality assessment test conducted by Karnataka Schools for Quality Assessment Organisation (KSQAO), the competence level of those studying between classes II and VII was very low. Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Primary and Secondary Education Minister Basavaraj Horatti, who chaired a meeting in Bangalore a few days ago, had approved a quality charter for Karnataka in schools. A target had been set for achieving 80 per cent attendance in schools and for increasing the competence level of the 60 per cent of the students who attended the schools to 70 per cent.

Mr. Madangopal said that the charter would have to be adopted by all the zilla panchayats. The message should reach all gram and taluk panchayats for an all-out effort to bridge the quality gap in the schools.

Deputy Commissioner Pankajkumar Pandey said that SDMCs and gram panchayats should utilise the funds available under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to arrest the migration of the labour and thereby reduce the school dropout percentage. Project Director of the Sarva Shishana Abhiyan L.K. Atheeq spoke on the occasion. Girish of MAYA gave a video presentation on the salient features of the status report. Zilla Panchayat President Yellappa Kurkunde presided over the function.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Need for quality education stressed
`Adolescents should be imparted sex education'
CPI(M) workers stage protest
HKCCI lauds move on tax exemption on pulses

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu