Issue of unsustainable schools fires up meet

The state government’s move to merge Kannada primary schools with less than 10 students, came under fire at the three-day 78th All India Kannada Literary Meet which concluded at Gangavathi in Koppal district at the weekend.

The meet, organised by the Kannada Sahitya Parishat, passed a resolution threatening the state government with intense agitation if the latter went ahead with its plans to merge schools. Describing the government’s move as an alibi to encourage English medium schools and private schools, president of the meet noted writer C P Krishna Kumar insisted that chief minister D V Sadanand Gowda make an announcement that the government would desist from closing schools.

 

The meet also demanded special status for the Hyderabad-Karnataka region under Article 371 of the Constitution. The other demands included reserving 20,000 seats for Kannada-medium students in engineering courses; making it mandatory to teach Kannada in Kendriya Vidyalayas in the state; withdrawal of cases against Kannada activists who had participated in rail roko agitation and completion of ongoing rail projects in the state.

Other issues discussed were development of Koppal district, co-operative movement in Karnataka, movements and future challenges in the state, and modern world and Kannada.

The guests from other parts of the state were provided accommodation by the residents in their houses under ‘Mane Mane Atithi’ (Houses for guests) programme.

The book stalls saw brisk business. The executive committee of Kannada Sahitya Parishat decided that the 79th All India Kannada Literary meet would be held at Bijapur.