Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education Kimmane Ratnakar has said that arrangements have been made to ensure that textbooks are available in all schools by April 20.
He was speaking after inaugurating a State-level conference of the Karnataka State PU College Employees’ Association here on Sunday.
The Minister said that schools not receiving textbooks even two months after the commencement of the academic year had become a common problem. “Almost every year, we hear about schools not having received textbooks even in September, while the academic year starts on June 1.”
“I held a meeting with officials of my Ministry and warned them that the problem should not recur. A decision has been taken to invite tenders for printing textbooks a year before the commencement of the academic activities,” Mr. Ratnakar said. Similarly, steps had been taken to ensure that bicycles were available for students when the academic year starts, he added.
On filling vacancies of teachers, Mr. Ratnakar said around 11,000 teachers would be reporting for duty by June 1, 2014, as recruitment was under way. He said the government was filling around 25,000 vacant posts in a phased manner.
Referring to the decision to bring pre-university education under the secondary education system, Mr. Ratnakar said though the government was facing resistance from teachers, the shift was inevitable in view of the Union government policy. He asserted that teachers would be taken into confidence before going ahead with the changes.
District in-charge Minister M.B. Patil, MLAs Makbul Bagwan and Raju Algur; MLCs Arun Shahapur and Mahantesh Koujalagi; honorary president of the association S.V. Sankanur and State president of the association A.S. Patil were among those present.
