DARK AGES BEHIND SCHOOL EDUCATION IN KARNATAKA:
Although Education is a process of step by step set of teachings about any particular subject or topic and all of us go to schools, colleges, and universities to gain a quality education. But before some decades, acquiring knowledge and school Education in Karnataka was not so simple comparatively we witness today. There were many difficulties and hurdles that stopping the students of Karnataka in this way. Still, through their skills and passionate behaviour, they cleared all the challenges, and now this vicinity of India is considered as the most sophisticated gentry in the whole country. The new problems that were faced by Karnataka people are in the next section of this article.
The word “quality education” does not mean to earn many degrees and certificates from very prominent institutions or readings from books, but it is too far beyond that. Before going to get knowledge, everyone must have to command over his/her ethical and moral values along with a positive attitude. The ambition to bring positive change in a society must be the aim of every individual after getting educated. All the stakeholders of School education in Karnataka adopted this lovely thought to teach their children at first.
Although the system of School Education in Karnataka has three main types:
1-Formal Education
2-Informal Education
3-Non Formal Education
There is a vast difference between mediocre and developed countries; that’s the importance of Education. We must be a strong nation that to gain a proper and excellent Education and transfer it to our next generation is compulsory, no doubt it is a very long process of achieving knowledge, values, skills, beliefs, and moral habits. Education facilitates us in quality decision making through learning, and it emphasizes to us remove the differences among people of any age group, caste, creed, religion, and region.
Why is it interesting to explore School Education in Karnataka?
The state has many schools and educational institutions, but Mangalore is known as an education hub. Best engineering, medical and pre Universities are in Mangalore. Karnataka is the only city with a tremendous literacy rate that has increased in the 21st century. In Karnataka, there are 10,000 schools with 1 lac teachers and 1.4 million students, approximately keeping the literacy rate higher than any other national average because this area has one of the most highly educated populations in the whole of India.
The current practical situation of school education in Karnataka
The government manages half of the institutes; and the local NGOs.
There are private, unaided schools; semi-government coaching’s also available, but compulsory free primary Education is providing in most towns and villages of Karnataka.
Among all institutes and schools education in Karnataka has widely spread by the oldest but most prominent institutions of higher learning whose names are:
1-The Indian Institute of Science
2-Bangalore University
3-University of Agricultural Sciences
4-University of Mysore
5-Karnatak University
6-Gulbarga University
7-Mangalore University
Karnataka keeps a rich cultural heritage, compounded by the participation of various successive dynasties. The population belongs to multiple religions, but the predominant religion of the state is Hinduism, then Jainism and Buddhism. While minorities of the country occupy tiny portions of the whole area, follow Islam and Christianity. Minorities do not get their fundamental rights as majorities.
The Karnataka has more than twenty-four districts, and further, divided into four divisions. Each region is ruled by a deputy commissioner, who recognizes as the district magistrate or collector by the native peoples. This person has total rights to make decisions about all needed parameters. There are several levels of administrative units below the district level.
Problems faced by the state in spreading school education in Karnataka:
When the question is asked to stakeholders by one of the news reporters about school education in Karnataka, he said that “Karnataka has a policy of hiring only regular teachers with necessary minimum educational qualification but instead of that government schools are running under-staffed.” Apart from the shortage of teachers and teacher absenteeism, the school building has the worst infrastructure, electricity crises, and other deficiencies of necessary resources.
The young generation in Karnataka remained unable to afford private schools’ expenses as coming from more deprived backgrounds with fewer resources. They do not move towards to get admission in a government school at least because they believe getting an education is their fundamental right and the only way to contribute o nin the prosperity of the country. Although their government schools do not have the needed teaching staff, they are trying to combat the acute shortage of teachers.
Besides these issues, when their government hired quality teachers, they do not have the right quantity of students attending the class, which let them lose motivation and focus.
Geographical importance of Karnataka:
Sometime pronounces as Kannada, a name of a beautiful state or place located in India (western coast of the subcontinent). Before achieving India’s independence in 1947, Karnataka’s old name was Mysore or Mysuru, which reflects the Sanskrit word for “buffalo town,” as Karnataka on the state level was called Mysore. According to the local citizens, Karnataka gained by fighting and the destruction of the buffalo-demons.
The school education in Karnataka is mostly based on historical events and their legacy. Teachers emphasize the candidates to grip strong over their geography and history subjects.
Mysore was a prosperous but landlocked princely state now having a population of 61,130,704 as per 2011 surveys. It had an area of less than 78,000 square km on the Karnataka Plateau. Still, then the transfer of people in territories of the state between 1953 and 1956 not just cause the country to raise boundaries to the sea, but also it significantly extended its parameters for people to settle. The state Kannada word means “lofty land,” which now has an area of 74,051 square miles means 191,791 square km.
Karnataka surrounded by the five states: Goa, Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. The state capital is Bengaluru (Bangalore), located near the southeastern border.
Steps needed for the prosperity of School Education in Karnataka
State Department of schools and Education in Karnataka is taking steps to increase the strength of quality teachers in town, and now they are hiring guest teachers also. Still, the state has a shortage of about one forth teachers who do not fulfill the needed educational and professional qualifications. Teachers not needed there who only know about educational theories, but also must have strong command over the subject and practical implementations. The teachers with excellent skills would be able to learn and understand students’ issues. They will make the students meet the requirements of modern Education and exposure to it, and hence students will get much-needed support from the teacher and school, which they do not have till yet.