BJP to protest govt decision on minority status to schools

The BJP today threatened to go on protest against the Karnataka cabinet's decision to reduce the total percentage of students belonging to minority community from 75 to 25 per cent to grant minority status to primary schools for implementing the Right to Education Act.
As per the decision, if the number of students belonging to the community concerned is not less than 25 per cent of the total strength of the institution, then the institution would be treated as a minority institution.
The decision would give a fillip to many schools across the state to compete for getting minority status in the coming months, State BJP leader Suresh Kumar told reporters.

"This would also mean that the number of seats for children belonging to underprivileged sections in private schools under the RTE would reduce as minority schools are exempted from admitting students under the quota," he said.
A large number of schools will apply for minority status, Kumar said. "In Bangalore district alone, about 60 per cent of the institutions will compete for getting the minority status. There are 2,000-odd schools here."
The BJP government in July 2012 had notified that a minority school should have 75 per cent intake of students of a notified minority community. On June 13 this year, the State Cabinet decided to reduce the intake to 25 per cent, he said.

"This step will give boost to commercialisation of educational institutions," he added.
It would also give importance to school managements instead of the children belonging to minority communities, Kumar said.