BENGALURU: Primary and Secondary Education Minister Suresh Kumar on Wednesday wrote to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, seeking grant-in-aid status to private Kannada medium schools -- 685 primary and 211 high schools -- established between 1995 and 2000.
Explaining that he had averted a 3,000-member strong protest outside his residence by calling for a meeting with MLC Basavaraj Horatti, he wrote that the estimated cost to the department for providing grant-in-aid status for the schools would be Rs 138.39 crore.
Kumar said the department’s primary demand is allocation of Rs 150 crore for this purpose, and he wrote to the chief minister, seeking the same be announced during the government’s response on the budget debate.
He reminded Yediyurappa that during the latter’s tenure as chief minister in 2008, he had announced the historic step of providing grant-in-aid status to private unaided schools. Thereafter, no step was taken to do it. The minister said he had asked the protesters to refrain from agitation, and peacefully hold the evaluation process in schools.