A group of senior academicians in Karnataka including VP Niranjanaradhya, Prof Babu Mathew and Prof Muchkund Dubey, have written to the new Chief Minister Siddaramaiah seeking a discussion on the school education system in the first cabinet meeting.

In the letter written to Siddaramaiah by the School Development and Monitoring Committees' Coordination Forum, the academics urged the state government to bring a few structural reforms in the education sector.

“With only 10 days left for the start of school (May 29, 2023), the government should consider the issue of education as a matter of utmost urgency and take all kinds of urgent measures, considering them as an immediate priority and subsequent priorities. The recruitment of teachers, which has been in abeyance for the past many years, has completely derailed the learning of children,” the letter read.

The number of vacancies in the state for the year 2021-22 is about 1,41,358. Of these, the process of recruiting 13,352 teachers is underway and urgent action is being taken to ensure that they are in schools before the school commences, they stressed.

The educationists demanded that all the necessary incentives such as textbooks, uniforms, shoes, socks and bus passes be provided immediately to the children before school starts. Moreover, it was demanded that 20% of the state budget should be set aside for education and mushrooming of private universities should be limited in the state.