Govt decision leaves Kuvempu town worried

SHIMOGA: While Kannadigas are celebrating their language at Gangavati, the Karnataka government’s decision to shut down some Kannnda schools has not gone down well among people of the Malnad region. Litterateurs and people of the region have raised their voice against the move to close down schools that have five students or less.
Teerthahalli, the birthplace of Kannada writer and poet Kuvempu, whose works aroused the people’s love for the state and its language, will bear the brunt of the government’s decision.Forty-five Kannada-medium primary schools in Teerthahalli and Hosanagar taluks – situated in Maoist-infested forests– are facing the axe. Parents have warned that the closure of these schools will spell an end to their children’s education. These students have to trek 5-7 km in thick forests to school. Many of these schools have single teachers. If the state government implements its decision, these students will have to undergo more hardship – cross streams, canals and rivers, besides walking through forests – to reach clubbed schools.
The situation in other schools is not encouraging either. According to the education department, out of the 560 vacant posts in primary schools in Shimoga district, 245 are in Teerthahalli taluk alone. The government has not taken any action to fill the posts. Many literary giants studied in government primary schools in Teerthahalli. Besides Kuvempu ,U R Ananthamurthy, Ha.Ma. Nayak, M K Indira , S V Parameswara Bhatt, Kadidal Manjappa, Girish Kasaravalli, Anupama Niranjana, Shanthaveri Gopalagowda and others studied in Kannada-medium government schools in the taluk.
Local panchayats and the district administration have cautioned the government against closing the schools. But the appeals seem to have had no effect yet.
Kariayappa, a labourer living in Punaje village, deep inside a forest, sums up the feeling of residents of the taluk: “I cannot risk sending my children to far-off places. Closure of schools will seal their fate.”