STOP NEGLECTING GOVT SCHOOLS; ALL GOVERNMENT SERVANTS MUST SEND THEIR KIDS TO GOVT SCHOOLS.

I am talking about the government schools in Odisha, where 93% of the total kids study. The quality of education and performance of students in these schools have fallen to such a low that they have become no better than mere literacy centers. About 6 million students, mostly from economically weaker sections of society, are deprived of a good education. People are losing their confidence that these schools can help their children in building their career or life. And on the other side of the fence is the rising number of private schools which are believed to be providing better education.

Governments at the centre and in the state are hand in glove in supporting privates schools. In a paradoxical scenario those in power who take decisions in matters of education policies and their implementation send their children to private schools. It means, on the one hand, these people in power, be they MPs, MLAs and Ministers, bureaucrats,or officials of any ranks, do not have trust in the efficacy of government schools, and on the other, that they leave these schools to rot, since their own children are not affected. It implies a deep conflict of interest: The people, who enjoy all privileges from a system, ungratefully neglect it, and patronise agencies beyond, for their self-aggrandizement. And this duality of the system is widening the already existing divisions in our society, and, unfortunately, going against the Constitutional values of equality and justice.

We are sure things will change if the children of these powerful people study in government schools, for they will have a direct stake in there, and in the future of their own children.

We ask the Honourable Chief Minister of Odisha to take drastic steps to ensure that conditions and quality of government schools improve, so the confidence of the people on them is restored.

Complicity of people in power with the players of privatisation is a great threat to, and an undermining factor responsible for, the sharp decline in the state of the state education. It is already overdue to cry a halt to such a trend.

We urge the state authorities to make laws, taking the precedent from the Allahabad Highcout order a couple of years ago, making it part of the service conditions of the government employees to get their children admitted to government schools.

We request parents, guardians, teachers and all concerned citizens to sign this petition so our collective voice and demand for action reach the Chief Minister of Odisha.