BENGALURU: Several academics and NGOs are irked over a presentation given by a private person from Delhi about the Karnataka government’s initiative to invite corporates to join hands with the Primary and Secondary Education Department to strengthen government schools.
Many academics and NGOs who took part in the meeting have raised their objection over the third party intervention. During the meeting on Wednesday, the principal secretary of the department said a committee will look after the initiatives. The committee will be headed by a person from Delhi and will act as a link between the government and corporates.
The participants raised objection over a private person speaking about a government initiative. Dr V P Niranjanaradhya, an educationist, asked, “Why is this person talking about the government initiative? Who is he? What knowledge does he have about the state education system? Why is there is no nodal officer from the department to monitor this?”
Replying to this, Shalini Rajneesh, principal secretary of the department, said, “I am the nodal officer and they (the third party) will just coordinate between the private participants and the government.”
Unsatisfied with this reply, Niranjanaradhya and other participants asked, “Why has this person been given a space at MS building and how can they use the MS building as their official communication address?” He added that the third party has been using the principal secretary’s official email id too.
Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Tanveer Sait said, “I am unaware of this third party issue. But there will not be any third party in this. Everything will be done directly with the department and each initiative will be published online. No person will be allowed to use my department address except my department staff.”
