No screening of movies at govt schools

BENGALURU: Government schools in the state are no longer allowed to screen any movie or take its children to theatres for a show. The state Department of Public Instruction has issued a circular banning the screening of movies at schools.This comes after complaints were received by the department stating that schools often force students to pay for the movies that are shown to them.

The circular from the department states: “It has come to the notice of the department that several producers of low budget films are approaching school authorities, requesting them to allow special screening of the movie at discounted rates and some officials at local levels are allowing this.”

A senior official said, “There are instances where even after the permission to screen a movie at schools was denied, some producers made fake permission letters to put pressure on school authorities to send their students to watch the movie and are also collected half the price... Most of the students at government schools are from economically poor families and forcing them to pay for movies is a real embarrassment for the department.”