Karnataka government has ordered the opening of 500 Karnataka Public Schools (KPS) in the first phase through the private-public partnership (PPP) model from the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund of various companies and non-government organisations (NGO) and knowledge partners across the State for the next academic year.
It also constituted a monitoring committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, which will include the Minister of the Department of School Education and Literacy, the Minister of the Revenue Department, the Higher Education Minister among five other ministers, and the Additional Chief Secretary of the government as members.
The task of this committee is to oversee the proper implementation of the KPS project, preparation of guidelines for the single window monitoring system, financial issues, regulation of project phases and non-compliance, engagement with potential partners and others.
Along with this, the government has also formed a seven-member executive committee for the KPS headed by the Additional Chief Secretary of the government. These committees have been given the power to formulate policies and guidelines for successful implementation of the KPS scheme.
“Five hundred schools with maximum enrollment in the State should be identified as Centres of Excellence. Such schools should be named as KPS and established at the taluk centre and hobli level. These schools should be identified in future to include Pre-primary to Pre-University,” the order said.
To attract children towards government schools, the government has decided to upgrade 2,000 schools as KPS, particularly in rural areas and one school per three gram panchayats across the state in three years.
The government also plans to collect around ₹2,500 crore of CSR fund for the schools’ development from corporate companies and NGOs. It has been decided to encourage teachers in private schools teaching central curriculum to volunteer to serve in government schools and to co-opt as additional guest teachers.
