A government primary school teacher Veeranna Madiwalar, who has been issued a notice by the Education Department for voicing his opinion about the State government’s policy on merger of schools, says he has not violated any law.
“I have not criticised any policy of the State government. Nor have I objected to its plans or actions. I have only voiced my concern about the state of education, as a concerned citizen and poet,’’ he said.
“A few days ago, I wrote a poem on the government announcement that it plans to merge over 13,800 schools. This means that nearly a third of the total government schools in the State will be closed. I was worried and concerned about this. When government schools close down, it is children from the backward classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and minority communities that suffer,” he said.
“When some ashrama schools were closed down a few years ago, children of nomadic communities had to leave school as they were deprived of access to education. Similarly, when some OBC hostels were closed down, several youth from backward classes had to drop out of college,” he said.
“I am afraid that if the merger plan materialises, students, especially those from backward classes, will suffer. I felt sad and dejected and out of concern for the deprived classes, I wrote a two-line poem and posted it on social media. I have not violated any rule,’’ he said.
His post describes the idea of merger as “sounding the death knell” to government schools and “massacre” of the academic future of poor rural students.
Mr. Madiwalar said that he has not yet received a copy of the notice said to have been issued by the State government. “Once I receive it, I plan to give a detailed reply. I will maintain that I have not violated any rule. I have neither objected to the government’s plans, nor criticised its policy,” he said.
In a fresh social media post, Mr. Madiwalar explained his position and defended his earlier posts. He said that he was concerned about the poor, deprived sections of society that will suffer if rural schools are closed down. This post has been shared widely and also, it received several likes and comments.
Mr. Madiwalar is the headmaster of the Government Primary School in Ambedkar Nagar in Raibag in Belagavi district. He has won awards for teaching and for providing leadership to the school.
With the help of the local Member of Legislative Assembly P. Rajeev and some philanthropists, he has built a language laboratory named after writer Shivaram Karanth. He crowd sourced funds to buy additional land for the school, build a compound wall and a toilet block for students.
A post-graduate degree holder in English literature from the Central University of Karnataka in Kalaburagi, he is an accomplished writer with several poetry collections and fiction works to his credit.
