Karnataka launches special campaign to boost govt school attendance

Time of India

07-05-2025

Bengaluru: The department of school education and literacy has initiated a new campaign to increase admissions to govt schools this year.As many as 408 schools have been identified where the campaign will be held. "The schools will invite community leaders and parents to these schools, offering them guided tours and briefings on available facilities. This will create awareness of the benefits of enrolling in a govt school," said K V Trilok Chandra, commissioner, department of school education.Additionally, there will be community outreach programmes where teachers will identify potential parents in the neighbourhood and encourage them to enrol their children in the govt schools. While a similar outreach programme is already in place, this year, it will be held on a larger scale.The campaign already began with state-level training for deputy directors of public instruction and block education officers last week. "With significant investments being made in govt schools, it is important to create awareness and get eligible students to enrol," he added.Interestingly, in Karnataka, even though the number of private schools is less than half of govt schools, the enrolment is more in them. As per the unified district information system for education (UDISE) 2023-24, there are 75,869 schools in the state. Of these, 49,306 are govt schools, 7,063 are aided, and 19,542 unaided schools.Around 1,19,26,303 students are enrolled in classes LKG to class 12 in these schools. About 49.9 lakh children are in govt school system, 14.6 lakh in aided schools, and 54.8 lakh in private schools. As per UDISE data of 2022-23, approximately 53.3 lakh were in govt schools, 15.1 lakh in aided schools, and 55.6 lakh were in private schools.The enrolment in some govt schools has been increasing, owing to introduction of kindergarten, English medium; and Karnataka Public Schools, the class 1-12 schools, that boast good infrastructure and better student-faculty ratio.Niranjanaradhya V P, educationist, said: "The idea is excellent, but in my opinion, it is too late. Many private schools start admissions by Oct/Nov itself. The department should announce the calendar of events much ahead and needs to be strict about it. By the time govt schools start admissions from April 10, it is way too late. Also, since there are holidays from April 10-May 29, the govt schools are hardly functional."He added: "We had a success story when all our school development monitoring committee members went to a village in Bannikuppe in Bidadi and handed over handbills with list of facilities in govt schools, and ended up with 2,600 students. The teachers should be committed when they roll out this programme."