School Education and Literacy Minister Madhu Bangarappa expresses concern over poor quality of education; promises remedial measures

Mysore/Mysuru: Mysuru, once hailed as a ‘Hub of Education,’ is facing a challenge in maintaining its prestigious status, said School Education and Literacy Minister Madhu Bangarappa.

He has voiced serious concerns over the migration of students from Mysuru and surrounding districts to Mangaluru due to perceived diminishing quality of education.

Chairing a progress review meeting of the School Education and Literacy Department at the Zilla Panchayat Hall here this morning, he highlighted the significant migration of students from Mysuru to Mangaluru between 2019 and 2023.

“Over the past five years, a total of 15,000 students, including those from Govern-ment, aided and unaided educational institutions in Mysuru district, have opted to move to Mangaluru, citing concerns about the quality of education here. This trend is also observed in Chamarajanagar, Hassan and Chikkamagalur districts,” he revealed, pledging to implement measures to tackle this issue.

In the wake of recent incidents of forcing school students to clean toilets on campus, which drew sharp criticism across the State, the Minister warned the authorities not to give room for such complaints.

 The Department is also developing a software to enable people to raise complaints on cleanliness on campus by sending them to a command centre. A total of 48,000 schools are functioning in the State and the students who should hold ‘pen and books’ in hand shouldn’t be forced to hold brooms, he said.

In addition, free electricity and drinking water will be supplied to schools to facilitate students to make use of computer labs, which otherwise remains unused owing to errant power supply, he added.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Mysuru Zilla Panchayat  (ZP) K.M. Gayathri, Chamarajanagar ZP CEO Anand Prakash Meena and other officers were present at the meeting.