Villagers stage protest opposing merger of school in Chikkamagaluru taluk

The residents of Kesarike village in Chikkamagaluru taluk staged a protest on Wednesday opposing the proposal to merge the government lower primary school with the Karnataka Public School (KPS) at Mylimane village.

The students’ parents, gathered under the banner of the All India Democratic Students’ Organisation, and raised slogans against the Magnet-KPS scheme and demanded that the government withdraw it. They said that the school in the village, with 35 students, had a history of 75 years. The proposal to merge schools with Karnataka Public Schools would encourage the establishment of private schools in rural areas and children from deprived sections would lose access to education.

AIDSO Subhash Bettakoppa said that if the school at the Kesarike was closed, the children had to travel from 6 to 10 kilometres to Mylimane. “The children to be affected by this decision are from poor families of workers in the coffee estates, including those migrated from different states to work in the estates”, he said.

The villagers, including Chetan, Gangadhar, Shashidhar, and Somashekhar, stated that they would appeal to the Chief Minister and the School Education Minister against the merger of their school with KPS at Mylimane. They also warned that they would escalate their protests if their request is not acknowledged by the government.

AIDSO activists Sushma, Chaitra and others were present.