The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) decided to close the school on Raj Bhavan premises following a communication last year from the Governor’s secretariat to the Education Department that the student strength is declining and sought its closure.
On Monday, five students were present at the school. As per documents available with the management, 14 children have registered for this academic year from classes one to five.
Over the past three years, the number of students who had registered has not exceeded 35 each year.
After senior officials of the department inspected the school and ordered its closure, two teachers ‘shifted’ the students to Government Higher Primary School in Vasanth Nagar, nearly 2.5 kilometres away.
The Karnataka Right to Free and Compulsory Education Rules 2012 specify that there needs to be a primary school every one kilometre.
A source in the Education Department said, “In the past, Raj Bhavan staff would send their children to this school, but now the students are from families of construction workers who live nearby. The number of students is declining as there are no families living in the vicinity.”
However, the move has not gone down well with parents, who had written a letter to the governor’s office last academic year to drop the proposal for relocating the school.
A person whose child used to attend the school said, “We will not be able to keep tabs on our children if they go so far away. It will be difficult for us to send them there.”
However, P.C. Jaffer, Commissioner for Public Instruction, said that arrangements would be made to transport children from Raj Bhavan to the school in Vasanth Nagar.
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