The Central Committee of Kannada Organisations in Belagavi has decided to join Marathi and Urdu associations to put up a common protest against the Karnataka Public Schools (KPS) being set up by the government of Karnataka.
Ashok Chandargi, committee president, made the announcement at a protest meeting in the Sahitya Bhavan in Belagavi on January 18 He said that the Education Department was planning to close over 40,000 rural schools in Karnataka in the name of merging them with the ‘model schools’ at the gram panchayat level. “These include over 2,000 schools in Belagavi district, including Kannada, Marathi and Urdu schools. If the State Government goes ahead with such steps, it will be an irreversible move,” he said.
“The State Government should realise that starting and continuing Kannada medium government schools in border districts, like Belagavi, is a difficult task. We have been fighting with successive governments led by various parties to ensure this. But we are shocked to see that the government is trying to close over 2,000 schools in Belagavi district. These include those in border villages in Belagavi and Khanapur taluks. This is in direct contradiction to the claims of Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa who claimed on the floor of the House that the government will not close government schools. I would say this is nothing but pure madness. If the government thinks the common people and Kannada organisations will keep quiet against such injustice, it is wrong,” he said.
“The KPS magnet schools will close rural schools and force students from the poor and deprived communities, and girl students to walk to schools that are 10- 15 kilometres away, which is nearly impossible. Poor parents who cannot afford to send their children to schools in the neighbourhood, will never be able to send them to distant schools. This will be a disaster. We will fight against this unitedly, forgetting differences of language, caste and creed,’’ Mr Chandargi said.
Writer Dadasaheb S. Chougale said that this was clearly an anti-poor scheme. “This is will make the rich richer while pushing the poor into extreme poverty. The government must immediately abandon this policy and strengthen rural schools. All the great writers and thinkers in the State have argued strongly that only when Kannada schools survive will the State thrive. We need to protect government schools. This has been among the major resolutions passed in all the Kannada Sahitya Sammelanas till now,” he said. He urged writers to actively participate in the struggle.
AIDSO State Committee member Tulaja Ram N. K. said that moves like KPS were undermining the historic struggle for universal education, led by reformers like Savitribai Phule and Mahatma Jyotiba Phule . “It was because of their relentless struggle that the doors of education were opened to children of all castes and gender in villages. But KPS will undo such revolutions. All of us should ensure that not a single government school is allowed to close,” he said.
AIDSO leader Subhash Bettadakoppa alleged that the KPS scheme was forced by external forces like Asian Development Bank and World Bank. KPS schools are also proposing to train students in vocational skills like carpentry and arecanut peeling, that could make them fit to drop out and become factory workers and continue the ill-effects of casteism, he said.
He complained that the State Government was negligent of government schools in rural areas. “Over 3.7 million children are enrolled in these schools. But over 21,000 schools have not been repaired and 60,000 teacher posts are vacant. All this is a conspiracy to hand over education to corporate houses. People must build a strong struggle against this cruel policy being implemented by both the Congress and BJP parties,’’ he said.
Kallappa Patil, President of the Balagatti Public Education Protection Committee, appealed to people of all languages — Kannada, Marathi, and Urdu — to come together and build a united and strong struggle. He recalled his experience of organising a protest of parents in his village. He said that for poor children to receive education, government schools must be established and continued within villages.
AIDSO leaders like Mahantesh Bilur, Gram Panchayat members, parents and students were present.
Published – January 19, 2026 11:51 am IST
