Responding to demands calling for the withdrawal of these papers, Nagesh said, “This is only a recommendation. The position papers were uploaded on the central government’s website and we went a step further to put the the 26 position papers on the public domain to get responses from people.”

 

Nagesh also said that eggs will be provided as part of the midday meals to alleviate malnutrition. In the districts where Isckon is providing the midday meals, a third party will provide eggs.

 

Nagesh, however, refused to answer questions pertaining the the textbook controversy. “Enough has been said in this regard before. For those who question the need for textbook revision, I recommend that you read a report on the quality of textbooks of Karnataka done by the NCERT that was published in 2017,” he said.

 

Responding to a query on modernisation of madarasas, he said, “There is a representation from the community to upgrade the syllabus of madrasas. The attendance in Urdu schools has dropped drastically. Students want to learn English, Science, Maths which can be applied in the future. Many people have told me syllabus in madrassa has to be changed. That aside, there is mandatory for those who attend madrasas have to attend regular classes as well,” the minister said.

 

As per data from the Education department, as many as 13,800 schools have less than 25 students and 1,800 have less than 10 admissions. 

 

“Closure is not an option. These schools will be merged with the model schools at hobli levels. There are 16 schools in Chamrajnagar and 32 schools in Raichur without teachers.”