Student enrolment in Karnataka’s government schools is consistently — and dramatically — falling. This phenomenon is admitted in a September 24, 2011 circular of the state’s department of public instruction. According to the circular, over 3,000 government primary (classes I-IV) and upper primary (classes V-VIII) schools spread across all 34 districts of the state have less than ten students on their muster rolls, and will be shut down before the next academic year begins in June. The handful of students enroled and teachers employed in these schools will be transferred to neighbouring government schools. “Keeping this (falling enrolment) in mind, the education department has proposed to merge the schools with nearby schools to strengthen and give good education to students,” says the circular (written in Kannada).
Tushar Girinath, the Bangalore-based state commissioner of public instruction, says that 50 primaries have already been merged with their nearest government high schools. “We hope to merge the rest before the new academic session begins. Merging these schools will help us impart quality education as students don’t benefit socially when the student headcount is low. Transport facilities and/or allowance will be provided to students to attend their new schools after merger,” says Girinath, adding that migration of villagers to urban habitats is the primary cause of falling enrolments.
Though educrats like Girinath are unlikely to ever publicly admit it, the prime reasons behind consistently declining student numbers in free-of-charge government schools are teacher truancy, abysmal infrastructure, dismal learning outcomes, and most important, neglect of English teaching-learning. For over 17 years, successive governments in this southern state have doggedly followed the ‘Kannada or mother tongue’ medium of instruction policy in government primaries, while attempting to impose it on post-1994 private schools. With public demand, even among the poor in rural Karnataka, for English medium schooling growing, parents are increasingly enroling their children in private schools which offer English and/or English-medium education, better learning outcomes and teacher accountability. Moreover, the 3,000 government primaries scheduled to close are in every — not merely rural — district of Karnataka.
According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2010, published by the well-known education NGO Pratham, private school enrolment of children in the age group six-14 in rural Karnataka has steadily increased during the past five years, rising from 16.8 percent in 2005 to 20 percent in 2010. ASER 2010 also confirms the reading and maths learning of children in private rural schools in Karnataka is 8-10 percentage points higher than of government school children. For instance, 55 percent of private school class V children can read and comprehend class II texts as against a mere 43 percent of class V government school students.
However, this is not the first time that the state government had to close down schools because of no-takers for govern-ment-style primary education. In 2009-10, 485 government primary schools downed shutters as they had less than five students on their muster rolls. At the time, the state’s primary and secondary education minister, Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri admitted in the legislative assembly that “attraction towards English-medium instruction” was one of the reasons for their closure. A year later, history is repeating itself, except that the number of government schools set to close this year is 3,000.
Even as obstinate politicians refuse to heed several high court judgements allowing parents to choose the medium of instruction for their children, monitors of the education scene in Karnataka believe that student numbers in govern-ment schools will continue to spiral downward unless the core issues of introducing English language teaching and improving learning outcomes are squarely addressed. “Since government schools offer only vernacular education, parents pull their children out and enroll them in private schools. Moreover, in government schools there are problems of teacher absenteeism and poor learning outcomes. If the state government wants to halt this trend, it must seriously consider the growing parental demand for English education as well as issues related to teacher accountability and learning outcomes,” says Prof. A.S. Seetharamu, former professor of education at the Institute of Social and Economic Change, Bangalore and currently advisor to the Karnataka state government.
Given that behind the obstinate refusal of the state’s politicians and bureaucrats to sanction English-teaching is a murky mix of language chauvinism and commercial calculation, this advice is unlikely to be heeded. Meanwhile parents, even the poorest in rural Karnataka, will continue to vote with their feet in favour of private English-medium schools.
Swati Roy (Bangalore)