School walls across Karnataka could soon turn into billboards hawking anything from cars to cement, as the State government has decided to let private companies use government school walls to advertise products. The move, which critics describe as a desperate measure to raise funds, has drawn the ire of parents, teachers and educationists.
In a bid to allay fears, Karnataka’s Primary and Secondary Education Minister Tanveer Sait said that all proposals will be screened first. “We will have to see the product they [companies] wish to promote and the content of the advertisement. They will have to pay for the space and also paint the compound wall,” he said.
Mr. Sait pointed out that some schools, especially in rural Karnataka, were already allowing advertisers to paint their products on school walls. The department will ensure that only products that are in “good taste for children” are featured, he said, citing cement and car companies as examples.
Various stakeholders, however, have urged the Minister to reconsider the decision. V.P. Niranjan Aradhya, fellow at the Centre for Child and Law, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, argued that it was unacceptable for the government to even consider such a proposal. “If the department wants walls to be colourful, then they can paint things on the history of a region,” he said.
Government school teachers, too, are unhappy. A teacher in North Bengaluru said that a school is a space where children of different social strata come together. “How can the government think of commercialising this sacred space? It shows government is evading its responsibility to build compound walls,” she said. The District Information System for Education says in 2016- 2017, as many as 9,297 of 43,895 government elementary schools, and 1,075 of 4,676 high schools lack compound walls.
According to Mr. Sait, in schools where there are no compound walls, the advertisers will have to build one before they can market their products.
