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Bengaluru: Two associations representing at least 13,000 schools in Karnataka have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi complaining about corruption in the Basavaraj Bommai-led state government.
The Associated Managements Of Primary And Secondary Schools (AMPSS) and The Registered Unaided Private Schools Management Association (RUPSA) have urged PM Modi to look into alleged bribes that are being demanded by the state education department while issuing no-objection certificates (NOC), renewal of recognition and other processes involving the department.
RUPSA also released an audio clip purportedly featuring a block education officer (BEO) demanding a cut to process an application seeking renewal of recognition.
The letter noted that unscientific, irrational, discriminatory, and noncompliance norms are applied to only unaided private schools and huge corruption is in place.
In what it claimed was its third letter to PM Modi, RUPSA has directly accused School Education & Literacy Minister BC Nagesh..
The associations claimed that multiple complaints and pleas to state education minister BC Nagesh have gone unattended, and demanded Mr Nagesh's resignation.
"The education minister has no concern to liberalize the rigid norms and frame rules and regulations that both public and private schools can practically and physically implement without burdening parents and students," read the complaint.
"The education ministry is impatient to listen and understand the actual pathetic situation of the whole system and resolve the issues. Two different BJP ministers literally caused lots of damage to budget schools rather than those schools that are commercializing education by allowing more and more investors to set up, directly costing more fees per child for parents," the letter added.
The associations also alleged that government-prescribed textbooks have still not reached the schools despite the beginning of the new academic year.