The state government is thinking of introducing a law making it mandatory for government employees, including elected representatives and IAS officers, to send their wards to government schools.
The state government is verifying all possibilities with this regard and going through the court orders and legislation from other states too. Even on Monday, senior officials of the state Department of Primary and Secondary Education met the officials of the law department. Recently, the meeting was held with Law and Parliamentary Affairs' State Minister Krishna Byre Gowda to discuss the matter.
According to sources from the department, who were present in the meeting, it has been decided to examine if there are any laws or judgements by the courts which need to be considered before framing a legislation. "We cannot frame a legislation without verifying all related legislation by other states and judgements by courts," mentioned a senior official of the Primary and Secondary Education department.
The department has taken this issue seriously after Congress MLC G Raghu Achar tried to introduce a private bill in the legislative session held during November 2017. However, he was denied permission to place the bill and interestingly, the then Primary and Secondary Education minister Tanveer Sait responded positively that time, by saying that the department will frame necessary rules, regulations to frame an act, if the bill is passed in the assembly and council sessions.
Meanwhile, this is one of the major recommendations by the Kannada Development Authority (KDA) to strengthen government schools and to improve enrolment at state government schools. KDA submitted total 21 recommendations, of which, making it mandatory for government employees to admit their kids to government schools, was one.
Uttar Pradesh has recently introduced an Act making it mandatory for all government employees to enrol their wards in state government schools. After this, several states are considering to introduce the same, like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
