BENGALURU: The State Government has identified over 2,000 schools and focus areas and the corporates can choose any of them to run the government schools in rural areas of Karnataka, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has said.
“Based on the company’s financial capacity, corporates can choose what they wish to do. They can improve government schools by constructing a building, furnishing it, set up needed infrastructure, like labs and libraries and others. All of these need not be done at once and can be planned and stretched to years together and officials,” he said while addressing representatives from the corporate sector, and educational institutions among others at the CSR Education Conclave - Nurturing Dreams and Transforming Lives, as part of the Samatva Program held at Vidhana Soudha on Monday.
Shivakumar, who is spearheading the Samatva programme said, “In cities like Bengaluru, there are many schools and many are mushrooming. We do not want parents to shift to cities just for their child’s education. Our aim is to prevent the rural-urban divide and ensure that rural children too get the same quality of education, that is on par with private schools operating in cities. So we are seeking the CSR aid.”
“Top 43 companies in Karnataka have declared above Rs 4 lakh crore as profits and their CSR is over Rs 8,000 crore. Of this, they are already investing over Rs 6,000 crore in the education sector,” he said.
He added that if all the companies join hands and donate CSR towards Samatva, the total collected CSR will cross Rs 10,000 crore.