Don't discriminate between government and aided schools'

He was speaking after inaugurating 'Ksha-Kirana 2012' a convention of aided primary school teachers, organised by the Karnataka State Aided Primary School Teachers Association (KSAPSTA) at the Town Hall, here on Tuesday.

He said that the government was discriminating between government and aided schools. Such discrimination should not be done in the process of moulding young minds. A maximum of 25 students can be managed by one teacher. While in government schools the teacher-student ratio is 1:30, it is 1:40 in aided schools. Why is there a difference in this? This kind of discrimination is unfair, he said.

He said that teachers were entitled to their rights along with their responsibilities. A teacher will show interest in the future of his students in the same way that he is shown respect. Hence they should also be respected and provided with amenities, he said.

Teachers should be such that they are able to inspire others to want to do good for the society, and not just make money in a profession. The citizens of this country should also be taught humanity along with being duty-bound. This should be done by our teachers, he said.

B Ramanath Rai, MLA from Bantwal, said that 52 crores had been allotted to the district of Dakshina Kannada in the current year for the purpose of education. This will be utilised to fulfil the various demands of the aided schools and their teachers. Facilities can be provided such as hike in salaries, and provision of scholarships, uniforms, meals etc for the students, he said.

N Yogish Bhat, Deputy Speaker of Legislative Assembly, in his presidential address assured the members of the Association to take up their pleas in the assembly and fulfill them.

S Prakash Murthy, President of KSAPSTA said that a teacher played a major part in moulding the society and its future. When facilities are provided to government schools, then why not for aided ones, he demanded.

K M K Manjanady, Secretary of the district unit of Karnataka State Private Aided Primary School Teachers' Association, (read out the memorandum) placed several requests in front of the Department of Education and urged the MLC Capt Ganesh Karnik and others in the administration to extend the facilities and privileges provided to government school teachers to be extended to aided school teachers as well.

Capt Ganesh Karnik, MLC, and Pradeep Kumar Kalkura, President of Dakshina Kannada District Kannada Sahitya Parishad, were felicitated on the occasion.

Raviraj Shetty, president of the district unit of KSAPSTA welcomed the gathering. K Padmanabha Kottari, former MLA, and Fr Wilson D'Souza, Secretary of Catholic Education Society, were present.