Bangalore: The Government has given nearly 3,000 derecognised schools in the State a respite by extending to June 15 the deadline to pay the fine and abide by the prescribed terms and conditions.

After a daylong review meeting with senior officials of the Education Department, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Basavaraj S. Horatti announced the extension of the May 15 deadline. The 2,977 derecognised schools have to fall in line with the rules governing the medium of instruction and recruitment of trained teachers (D.Ed.). The deadline was extended in the interests of nearly 3.60 lakh students who would have been affected if the Government had gone ahead with the derecognition process. The Government would also have had to accommodate the displaced students in other schools.

Mr. Horatti said he was confident that most of the errant schools would fall in line. A large number of schools had chosen to ignore the voluntary scheme announced in April since they believed that the court would issue directions in their favour. With the Karnataka High Court vacating the stay order, the derecognised schools were left with two choices: abide by the Government Order or close down. Twelve schools had already closed down, he said.

Permission

The Government granted permission to 7,084 schools to impart education in the Kannada medium in the primary section (standards one to five). While 4,133 schools abided by the condition, 2977 did not, of which 2,951 were served with derecognition notices.

The Government issued an order on April 12 asking the errant schools to pay a penalty and submit an affidavit that they would abide by the condition. Only 178 schools had responded to this offer so far, he said.

Asked what action would be taken against officials of the Department of Primary Education who had colluded with the errant schools, Mr. Horatti said it was a cumbersome exercise since the violations occurred over a period of 13 years. An inquiry was in progress, the Minister said.

Semester system

The Government has decided to reintroduce the semester system in schools instead of the present trimester system introduced by the S.M. Krishna government. Since textbooks (one for each trimester) have already been printed, the lessons in the three books for all subjects will be equally divided.

Each semester will last five months with a vacation in between.

Mr. Horatti said a high-level committee would be appointed to finalise the calendar of events and procedures to be adopted on school admissions. The recommendations would be strictly enforced from the coming academic year. The Government had also decided to enforce the ban on private tuitions by schoolteachers, he said.

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