Education in Karnataka has been getting increasingly inaccessible, with reduced government investments, high dropout rates, teacher shortages, and inadequate infrastructure being recurrent issues. Students from elementary schools to degree colleges in Karnataka are bearing the brunt of a poor education system that is getting rapidly privatized and exclusionary, making quality education a luxury and not a basic right of the common people.
A report titled “Implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009: Where Do We Stand” was recently released by the Right to Education Cell (RTE Cell) and the Council for Social Development, New Delhi. It exposes several shortcomings of Karnataka’s education sector. Only 11% of Karnataka’s 2023-24 annual budget has been allocated for education, as opposed to an average of 14.7% in other states of India. This drastic under-investment is a major concern as it leads to several other issues plaguing the education sector in Karnataka. Recently, Karnataka has seen a rise in the closure of many government schools due to poor infrastructure and low-enrolment. This has led to an increase in student dropouts. In the absence of affordable quality education, the few that can afford end up paying more than they can to send their children to private schools while a vast majority of students are kept out of schools.
“By not filling teacher vacancies and closing schools, the government is effectively ‘shrinking’ the public education system and reducing access to education,” the report said. Karnataka has 1,41,358 vacant teaching positions, which makes it the highest in the country. There is a very high pupil-teacher ratio and only 68% of the high schools have teachers for all core subjects. Ineffective and inadequate teacher professional development (TPD) was also highlighted in the report. These shortages, the report says, limit the academic support available to schools. A 2023 report of the Union Ministry of School Education and Literacy on RTE compliance shows that Karnataka’s RTE compliance rate is 23.6%, which falls below the national average of 25.5%. All this data portrays the alarming reality of primary education in Karnataka.
Many students discontinue their education after high school due to financial difficulties. When some of the students who finish their school education manage to move to government degree colleges, they are faced with similar problems there as well. In October, 300 students from government degree colleges staged a protest in Freedom Park against a huge faculty shortage. Despite being two months into the new academic year, many colleges had only 5 to 8 permanent government faculty for several hundred students. “Since the academic year started, not a single lesson has been completedby guest lecturers. Only the permanent government faculty are teaching and they cover just 25% of the subjects,” said a student from Government First Grade College, Peenya. In this college, senior students take classes for their juniors due to the lack of lecturers. Students are worried about clearing their end semester examinations in December with irregular classes and a lack of lecturers.
Discrepancies in the conducting of examinations are also very frequently seen here. In November, candidates protested outside a government degree college in the Sindhanur town, Raichur district, against misconduct in a Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) examination for the recruitment of Panchayat Development Officers. The question papers were given late and a seal on the bundle of question papers was tampered with and opened before the scheduled time. Candidates agitated over the possibility of the papers being leaked. Similar instances were also seen in Kalaburagi city. Such instances of
irregularities while conducting examinations adversely impact employment in an already underemployed society.
Engineering colleges, too, are getting increasingly privatized, with the implementation of 50% payment quota seats from this academic year in the University of BDT College of Engineering, Davanagere. The introduction of management seats in a government engineering college has sparked outrage among students. Of the 504 seats in total, 254 seats are management seats, being sold for Rs. 97,000 each according to rankings, whereas the remaining 250 merit seats have a fee of Rs. 47,000. Instead of improving access to education by reducing the fees, the Karnataka state government is selling half the college seats for higher fees to those who can afford it. Recently, Karnataka Information Technology Minister Priyank Kharge said 100 engineering colleges are set to be ‘adopted’ by the corporate sector next year to improve ‘employability’.
The Congress state government that came into power riding high on promises of social and economic justice is doing little to rectify the situation in terms of basic needs like education, health, agriculture etc. The writing on the wall is quite clear on the efforts to commodify and commercialize education as a luxury good. From the primary school to college level, education is slipping away from the masses. The situation is similar throughout the country, as privatization of education is aided by National Education Policy 2020. While Karnataka claims to be a ‘progressive’ state that scraps the NEP and is drafting a new alternative State Education Policy, the government is employing all kinds of backdoor methods to continue clearing the way for more privatization of education. The need of the hour is a policy that uphold the ethos of universal education, one that is yet to materialize.
The student-youth must unite to demand such a policy and its implementation from the state government.
