Mallikarjun Kharge rebukes Congress Govt over teacher shortages at Kalyana Karnataka schools

Poor people from rural areas are the worst hit by the shortages as they are unable to provide quality education for their children, said Mallikarjun Kharge. (ANI File Photo)

At an event held to lay the foundation for 300 new Karnataka Public Schools and other projects, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday appeared to admonish the state government for teacher shortages at schools in the backward Kalyana Karnataka region.

“Before sanctioning schools here, make sure there are enough teachers even if it means teaching children under a tree,” Kharge said at the event held at Yadrami in Kalaburagi. He hails from Kalaburagi district.

“There are schools in many places. But there is a shortage of teachers. Until you sanction enough teachers, there won’t be development in this region,” he said. Districts such as Kalaburagi, Yadgir, and Raichur are at the bottom rung. “We are there because we have schools, buildings, and a few officers. But there are no teachers. There is no science teacher, maths teacher, English teacher,” he said.

Poor people from rural areas are the worst hit by the shortages as they are unable to provide quality education for their children, Kharge said.

Aiming his remarks at School Education and Literacy Minister Madhu Bangarappa, he said that if the education department wanted to fill posts of 10,000 teachers, it should fill vacancies in the Kalyana Karnataka region before focusing elsewhere.

For education, people from the region are forced to travel to Bengaluru and other places, Kharge said, adding that there were no English-medium schools in many places in the backward region.

Kharge said focusing on the education sector would pay dividends in the future.

Referring to the Central Government’s decision to scrap the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), he called on the gathering to “prepare for a war’ to protect the law enacted to ensure the welfare of the rural poor. He said the VB-G RAM G Bill, which has replaced the MGNREGA, would suffer the fate of the three controversial farm laws that were withdrawn owing to public pressure.