Bangalore: Primary and secondary education minister Kimmane Rathnakar who has taken up the task of steering the state education sector to the right path, is focusing on fresh appointments of teachers, transfers and related subjects.
A politician with strong Socialist roots, Rathnakar shared his views on his department’s initiatives including desaffronisation, in an interview with Deccan Chronicle. Excerpts:
Q: After you became minister, what are the initiatives you have taken which are being implemented?
A: Many initiatives have been implemented for reviving the education sector. Priority has been given to filling vacancies in government schools. When I took charge as minister, nearly 25,000 teachers’ posts were vacant. To solve this problem, we have appointed 12,000 teachers temporarily.
Q: Immediately after you took over, the first statement you made was on desaffronising the education sector. Have you identified the academic content to be desaffronised?
A: I have called a book committee meeting and have ordered that all controversial words or sentences used in textbooks should be deleted.
Textbooks should not hurt the feelings of any caste, community or religion. They should safeguard the principles enshrined in the Constitution with respect to communal harmony.
Q: What actually do you think are objectionable in the content? How will you set it right?
A: It will not be fair to explain everything regarding the objectionable content in textbooks incorporated during the saffronisation of education undertaken by the previous BJP government. But steps have been taken to erase words or sentences which hurt the feelings of any caste or religion.
Q: In selecting the content for school textbooks, will you go by your party’s ideology which once again could make the content biased?
A: The government will give more importance to human values than party ideology. The content will be selected based on human values which cater to the overall development of the education sector and produce quality students keeping national interest in view.
Q: What about the programme of the state government for enabling excursions for Ahinda (minority, backward class and Dalit) students? Though it is not your department’s plan, won’t it hurt your interests if implemented? Isn’t it a move to communalize the atmosphere?
A: The excursion for students belonging to Ahinda communities, is implemented by the social welfare, higher education and tourism departments. It is not related to the primary and secondary education department. The issue has been raised in public and the ministers of the three departments have spoken on it.
Q: Moving on, recently, your department witnessed the highest number of transfers in recent years? What happened?
A: The transfers in the department were not made under pressure from vested interests. They were carried out purely on administrative grounds.
Q: The other issue is the failure in implementing the Right to Education (RTE) Act? How will you implement the Act in private schools?
A: There is no failure in implementing the RTE Act. Any new enactment will create some problems at the time of execution. The problems will be rectified and solved or we will create new rules.
Q: Tirthahalli taluk which you represent, has been witnessing Naxal activities. What steps are being taken to curb it?
A: Police and Anti-Naxal Force(ANF) officials are taking action to control Naxalism. Several development programmes have been implemented in Naxal-prone areas in the taluk, especially in the vicinity of Agumbe and on the borders of Shimoga and Chikmagalur districts. The authorities concerned will take appropriate steps.
Q: Moving on, what will happen if the KJP led by B.S. Yeddyurappa forges an alliance with the JD(S)?
A: There will be no takers for these parties in future. People are watching their ‘circus’ for survival.
