-Reshma Ravishanker

As many as 455 schools were shut in Karnataka over a year according to the latest Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2021-22. A majority 265 of these were recognized private unaided schools.

The UDISE+ report, which carries major indicators of school education, was released by the ministry of education on Thursday. While Karnataka had a total of 76,905 schools in 2020-21, the number reduced by 455 to 76,450 in 2021-22.

This follows the national trend where the overall number of schools have declined. “Total number of schools in 2021-22 stood at 14.89 lakhs as compared to 15.09 lakhs in 2020-21. The decline in total schools is mainly due to closure of schools under private and other management,” the UDISE+ report read about India figures.

The decline in government and government aided schools was significantly lesser, compared to the private unaided recognized schools in the state. While in 2020-21, the state had 49,791 government schools, in 2021-22, it reduced to 49,679 by 112.

Among the government aided schools, the number was reduced by 72. As against 7,182 schools in 2020-21, the state had 7,110 schools in the 2021-2022 report.

Private unaided schools were reduced by 265 in Karnataka. In 2020-21, while the state had 19,915 private schools, the number reduced to 19,650 in 2021-22.

Shashi Kumar D, general secretary, Associated Managements of Private Schools in Karnataka (KAMS) said that this could be a cascading effect of the pandemic.

“Their reduced performance and feeling the pinch of sustainability is one of the main reasons for closure of private schools. The second reason is harassment by government officials. Various departments of the government are making it very difficult for smaller schools to survive. These schools that are shut are mostly state board schools. Government is creating an ecosystem that allows only corporate schools to flourish which will proportionally increase fees in schools, making it less affordable for students,” added Kumar. 

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