SFI members present a memorandum to the state government in Haveri on Tuesday demanding that the proposal to close government schools be scrapped. | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Members of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) have urged the state government to drop plans to close down government schools in the name of merger with the proposed Karnataka Public Schools.
In Haveri on Tuesday, members submitted a memorandum to DDPI office education coordinator Niranjan Murthy demanding that the decision to close 64 government schools in Haveri be dropped.
They also demanded the publication of the list of schools proposed for merger.
“We have already organized round table meetings, massive protests, resistance meetings, made people aware of the survival of government schools, created massive movements, organized street plays, organized marches across the state and various programmes, including Belagavi Chalo during the winter session, to bring the issue to the attention of the state government,” they said.
The SFI will not allow a single school to be closed for any reason and has warned that a massive fight will be launched if the state government does not reverse the decision.
Officials suggest closing government schools for reasons such as low enrollment. This will seriously affect poor and deprived children. Without studying why public school enrollment is declining, they come up with such surgical solutions, they said.
The main reason why public schools are not doing well is the failure of the state government to provide facilities like basic infrastructure, timely recruitment of teachers, lack of supervision over the quality of teaching, provision of textbooks, cycles and others. It is reprehensible that the state government is now trying to destroy the public education system in favor of a private lobby, they said.
SFI district president Basavaraj S., leaders Arun Nagawat, Krishna Naik, Shambhu Savadatti, Parashurama, Lokesh and Dhanush Doddamani were present.
Published – 13 May 2026 18:50 IST
