BANGALORE:The amendments to the Karnataka Education Act (KEA), 1983, are still pending with the Department of Public Instruction for the past two years, after the Karnataka Education Act Revision Committee (KEARC) submitted comprehensive draft to the then Commissioner of Public Instruction B A Harish Gowda.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, D Jagannatha Rao, former director, DSERT, who was the chairman of KEARC, said that the amendments were required to address the rapid changes that primary and secondary education had gone through over the years. “The Act, since 1983, had remained stagnant. It could not address the changes taking place in the school education scenario. Hence, it was decided that amendments to the Act were necessary,” he said. He pointed out that the Supreme Court had given significant judgments in a number of cases that directly impacted education policies of the state.
“The amendments that our committee proposed to the KEA, 1983, were in line with the apex court’s judgments and also Constitutional amendments,” he said. After the report was submitted in August 2009, Gowda was transferred and was replaced by K R Shashidhara. “Nobody took it seriously and the amendments are pending till date,” Rao said.
Some of the amendments proposed in the draft, a copy of which is with The New Indian Express, includes bringing of pre-primary education and ICSE/CBSE schools under the purview of the Act, bringing vocation and teacher education under its purview, incorporation of a neighbourhood school, reservation of 25% of seats in all private schools for children belonging to weaker sections, a provision for open book examination if the government decides to go for such a type of examination among others.
When contacted Tushar Giri Nath, Commissioner of Public Instruction, said, “I am not aware of such a draft. If there are any proposed amendments, they must have reached the government. I will have to check.”