BENGALURU: The quality of primary and secondary education has deteriorated due to the irresponsible attitude of education officials in the state, alleged the Karnataka Private School Managements, Teaching, and Non-Teaching Staff Coordination Committee (KPMTCC), during a press conference held on Monday. This follows a record-low SSLC Board Class 10 results.
SSLC results were declared for Class 10 on May 9, with an overall pass percentage of 73.40, the lowest in the past four years. The committee members remarked that the decline in learning standards stemmed from the lack of effective guidelines for improvement. Strict rules are imposed on private unaided schools, without providing effective guidelines for improvement, while similar standards are not enforced in government-run schools. “Officials at the Block Education Officer (BEO) and Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI) levels are primarily focused on administrative tasks rather than ensuring quality education, which worsens the issue,” they said.
‘Assessment tests in Classes 5, 8, helpful’
To uphold educational quality, it is crucial to enhance pre-primary education in government schools for children under the age of 6, the members said, and pointed out that conducting assessment tests in Classes 5 and 8, without ensuring basic learning, is ineffective and these exams should be restructured.
Officials who fail to address unauthorised schools and instances of schools operating without proper permission, including cases where a school obtains permission under one name and operates under the same name in multiple locations, should face disciplinary action, the representatives said. In cases where multiple schools affiliated with various examination boards operate within the same campus, without proper authorization, should be identified as separate violations, leading to appropriate legal consequences.
The association requested the immediate release of a list identifying unauthorised schools and pushed for regulations to compel unauthorized schools to cease operations.
Private body members alleged that despite numerous attempts to draw attention to such issues, there has been a lack of tangible results. The representatives further demanded that a meeting should be promptly convened to tackle these issues and ensure the preservation of the state curriculum, else it will inevitably lead to stagnation in state curriculum schools and hinder the development of Kannada education, they said.