The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Political ideologies should be kept out of education: Chandrashekar

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Political ideologies should be kept out of education: Chandrashekar

S. Rajendran

He comes out against ‘saffronisation’ of education

‘Focus should be on bringing about a qualitative change in the system of primary education’
Chandrashekar was Council chairman was
14 months

B.K. Chandrashekar

Bangalore: The Bharatiya Janata Party Government in the State should not “saffronise” education, and instead focus on bringing about a qualitative change in the system of primary education, implementing the rule governing the medium of instruction and providing better infrastructure in the large number of primary schools that directly come under the purview of the Government.

On his last day in office, Chairman of the Legislative Council B.K. Chandrashekar took time off to talk to The Hindu on various issues confronting the system of primary education and the highlights of his tenure.

Prof. Chandrashekar, who was Minister for Primary Education in the S.M. Krishna Government, said political ideologies should be kept out of education. “I expect Primary Education Minister Visveshwara Hegde Kageri to put his best foot forward. He is an enthusiastic person and a senior legislator. However, personal prejudices should not be introduced in education.”

Sixty-three year-old Prof. Chandrashekar said: “They (BJP) are needlessly reopening a controversy which will not merely confuse the students and their parents, but also divide the teachers. The education community as a whole will be compelled to take some position vis-À-vis the proposed saffronisation. Rather than focussing on such divisive issues, attention should be on the several issues confronting the system of education. The medium of instruction issue involving nearly 1,500 primary schools is still hanging fire. The schools have been defying the Government and the court orders, and hapless parents have been admitting their children to such schools. This is one issue which should be first resolved and I am of the opinion that primary education should be imparted in the State language.”

There are nearly 50,000 primary schools, including 3500 minority institutions in the State. A large number of them did not even have Kannada language teachers. They also did have teachers for mathematics and science. The Urdu minority schools did not have computers. Yet another serious problem was the increasing rate of school dropouts. Karnataka had been singled out by the Centre for the high rate of dropouts.

On his 14-month tenure as Chairman of the Council, Prof. Chandrashekar thanked the legislators for extending their cooperation. “I am of the view that the Legislative Council should function as a think-tank and suggest the directions of policy-making in different sectors. It should not function on similar lines as the Legislative Assembly, wherein legislators of all the 224 constituencies have to draw the attention of the Government to the requirements of the people of their respective constituencies”.

The Legislative Council figured in national debates recently when Prof. Chandrashekar raised the important issue of the role of the Upper House during President’s Rule. His argument was that it was improper to bring the Legislative Council under the presidential notification imposing President’s rule in the State following the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly. “At least the Legislative Council committees should be permitted to function and the MLCs should be consulted on policy matters”.

As Chairman, Prof. Chandrashekar organised several workshops over the past year, including the ones on water resources management, Bangalore-centric issues, on the budget, global warming and climate change and the Sakrama scheme on regularisation of unauthorised constructions in Bangalore. He organised the centenary celebrations of the Legislative Council on July 24, 2007.

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