V.P. Niranjan Aradhya, fellow at the Centre for Child and the Law, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, has said that the education system in India was practising modern untouchability by reserving the sophisticated private schools for the rich, and badly maintained government schools for the poor.
He was delivering the inaugural address at a divisional conference of School Development and Monitoring Committees at Pundit Siddarama Jambaladinni auditorium here on Tuesday.
Dr. Aradhya said the government’s claims and commitment not to close the government schools but to strengthen them with qualified teachers and infrastructure contradicted with ground reality.
“The government is weakening the public education system by extending massive support to private institutions,” he said.
Dr. Aradhya called for a mass movement for a common and equal educational system.
“When the rich and powerful send their children to government schools, the quality of the schools will automatically improve,” he said.
Dr. Aradhya said Karnataka should follow an Allahabad High Court order that asked all government servants, elected representatives, members of the judiciary and others to send their children to government schools.
The 10th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation to be held at Nairobi in December this year, would focus on speeding up the process of privatisation of education in all developing countries, he warned.
Sophisticated private schools for the rich, and badly maintained government schools for the poor, says educationist
