Student enrolment in Karnatakas government schools is consistently — and dramatically — falling. This phenomenon is admitted in a September 24, 2011 circular of the states department of public instruction. According to the circular, over 3,000 government primary (classes I-IV) and upper primary (classes V-VIII) schools spread across all 34 districts of the state have less than ten students on their muster rolls, and will be shut down before the next academic year begins in June. The handful of students enroled and teachers employed in these schools will be transferred to neighbouring government schools. Keeping this (falling enrolment) in mind, the education department has proposed to merge the schools with nearby schools to strengthen and give good education to students, says the circular (written in Kannada).Tushar Girinath, the Bangalore-based state commissioner of public instruction, says that 50 primaries have already been merged with their nearest government high schools. We hope to merge the rest before the new academic session begins. Merging these schools will help us impart quality education as students dont benefit socially when the student headcount is low. Transport facilities and/or allowance will be provided to students to attend their new schools after merger, says Girinath, adding that migration of villagers to urban habitats is the primary cause of falling enrolments. Though educrats like Girinath are unlikely to ever publicly admit it, the prime reasons behind consistently declining student numbers in free-of-charge government schools are teacher truancy, abysmal infrastructure, dismal learning outcomes, and most important, neglect of English teaching-learning. For over 17 years, successive governments in this southern state have doggedly followed the ‘Kannada or mother tongue medium of instruction policy in government primaries, while attempting to impose it on post-1994 private schools. With public demand, even among the poor in rural Karnataka, for English medium schooling growing, parents are increasingly enroling their children in private schools which offer English and/or English-medium education, better learning outcomes and teacher accountability. Moreover, the 3,000 government primaries scheduled to close are in every — not merely rural — district of Karnataka. According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2010, published by the well-known education NGO Pratham, private school enrolment of children in the age group six-14 in rural Karnataka has steadily increased during the past five years, rising from 16.8 percent in 2005 to 20 percent in 2010. ASER 2010 also confirms the reading and maths learning of children in private rural schools in Karnataka is 8-10 percentage points higher than of government school children. For instance, 55 percent of private school class V children can read and comprehend class II texts as against a mere 43 percent of class V government school students. However, this is not the first time that the state government had to close down schools because of no-takers for govern-ment-style primary education. In 2009-10, 485 government primary schools downed shutters as they had less than five students on their muster rolls. At the time, the states primary and secondary education minister, Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri…
