Primary and Secondary Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar faced a volley of questions from hundreds of students from his constituency, Rajajinagar, during his first interaction with them since taking over as minister. Students from government, aided and private schools gathered at KLE School on Tuesday for the interaction.
The questions he fielded ranged from the pattern of the SSLC examination to reservations. Some students asked about the teacher transfer process and instances of teachers in some government schools being unable to hold classes as they had been deputed for training. Another issue was the delay in providing textbooks
Students asked the minister to consider introducing public examinations at classes six and eight. One student wanted to know why the RTE rules had been amended to prioritise government schools.
Another topic of discussion was the amount of hours students had to devote to their books. A class ten student felt the final year was a ‘punishment’ as children are not allowed to play either at home or in school, and were constantly being told to prepare for the board examination.
Deepti, a student of Rajajinagar government high school, was in tears when she asked the minister about bus passes. She said that the conductor asked her to buy a ticket. When she showed her old bus pass, he insisted that she disembark. She had to walk two kilometres to reach school that day.
When a student asked the Minister about reservation in the education system, he asked students not to worry about this at such a young age. “Reservation is implemented for the benefit of students from disadvantaged backgrounds,” he said.