Deputy Director of Public Instructions S.Y. Halingali, acting under the direction of Regional Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner N. Jayaram, on Friday warned the administration of the Belagavi-based St. Jospeh’s Canossian Convent High School that it will be de-recognised if it did not commence the process of admission to I Standard at its Kannada Higher Primary School by Saturday.
The warning follows a strong protest by various Kannada organisations against the denial of fresh admissions in the Kannada-medium school by the school administration for the academic year 2016-17.
Advice
Mr. Halingali, who visited the more than 100-year-old school, told The Hindu that the school administration had been warned and advised to commence the admission process by Saturday morning, failing which all schools under the St. Joseph’s High School banner would be de-recognised.
He said that the school administration was denying admissions to children to I Standard at the government-aided Kannada-medium school, which was illegal. However, the school administration said that the Kannada-medium school was being discontinued for want of teachers. Of the seven teachers, five had left last year. Subsequently, three teachers were appointed on the promise that parents would pay additional fee to meet their [teachers] salary but this was dropped later.
He said that since the school was under grant-in-aid structure, no fresh appointment of teachers could be done under the prevailing norms. However, the school administration could find ways to pay salary as in case of the un-aided convent school: “Our intention is not to close the school down but to protect the right of the children to education,” he said and added that he would wait till Saturday morning.
Earlier, Belagavi District Kannada Organisations Action Committee president Ashok Chandargi and office-bearers of various other organisations, at a press meet, said that the government should take action if the school failed to commence admission process.
