President of newly floated Karnataka Unaided Pre University College Management Association (KUPMA) M. Mohan Alva said here on Friday that the government should take managements of private pre-university colleges into confidence while taking decisions on academic and administrative matters as a large chunk of pre-university colleges which have been imparting quality education in Karnataka are managed by private managements.
In his introductory remarks at the inauguration of KUPMA, a registered body, Dr. Alva said that of 5,200 pre-university colleges in the State, 3,300 colleges are managed by private managements. The government manages 1,203 colleges and the remaining 697 colleges are government aided private institutes.
Of total 12.42 lakh students, 6.13 lakh students are in private pre-university colleges, 3.77 lakh students are in government colleges and government aided private colleges have 2.52 lakh students, he said.
Dr. Alva, who is also the Chairman of Alva’s Education Foundation, Moodbidri said that as the colleges managed by private managements have been producing a number of students who have been excelling in various sectors, the managements should have a say while framing syllabi, academic calendar and other academic and administrative matters. The government should not take unilateral decisions without taking the private managements into confidence, he said.
Taking a strong exception to the projection by a section of society that the private managements are “commercially oriented”, Dr. Alva said that it is not true. If the government spent (invested) say, for example ₹60,000 per a pre-university student, the private managements did not charge more than that for a student. The contribution of private managements for the promotion and sustainability of quality education can’t be undermined and they can’t be looked down upon by merely blaming them as “commercial”, he said.
Ganesh Karnik, former MLC, said that funding in education should be addressed from the real perspective. The educational institutes should prepare students to face life.
The secretary of the association Narendra L. Nayak, its honorary president M.B. Puranik and others were present.
