Left-wing student organisations heavily criticised government directive to close state-run schools.

Left-wing student organisations on Wednesday accused the Karnataka government of pushing ahead with a plan to shut down thousands of rural government schools under the “KPS Magnet” scheme, calling it an assault on public education and poor children’s access to schools.

The KPS Magnet scheme seeks to consolidate neighbourhood schools into larger and centrally located Karnataka Public Schools.

At a press conference at the Press Club of Bangalore, representatives of AISF, SFI, AIDSO, AISA and KVS released a copy of a government order which, they said, envisages the closure of over 40,000 government schools and their merger into about 6,000 KPS Magnet schools, with 900 such schools planned in the first phase.

They alleged that existing village schools with adequate enrolment were being merged and that parents would be forced to bear the burden of transportation.

The organisations raised the slogan, “Abandon the KPS Magnet project that robs poor children of education! Save public education, save our village government schools!” They said the order mandates the merger of all schools within one to five km radius to create Magnet centres.

The student groups alleged that the circular shifts responsibility for transport to School Development and Monitoring Committees and opens the door to outsourcing and corporate funding, which they claimed was a move towards privatisation.

“Funds meant for public welfare are being used to close the rural schools where the children of those very people study. This is a betrayal of trust,” they said.

They also pointed to existing shortages, noting that there are 59,000 vacant teacher posts, thousands of schools lacking basic repairs and many functioning with a single teacher, and argued that closing schools instead of strengthening them reflected an “anti-education stance”.

Condemning compulsory vocational training from Class six under the scheme, the organisations alleged that it would reduce poor children to cheap labour.

“The government is moving towards an anti-civilisation act of creating ‘human machines’ who lack basic subject knowledge and critical thinking,” they said, urging an immediate withdrawal of what they termed the “Black KPS Magnet” project.

Last October, the Karnataka government issued a mandate to transform 500 government schools into Karnataka Public Schools (KPS) during 2025, 26 and 2026, 27 with the help of State Budget funds and a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Approvals have been given for the upgradation of 474 schools (Annexure 1) whereas permission for the remaining 26 schools will be announced later.

Facilities of each KPS school will be raised so as to accommodate at least 1, 200 students. The cost of Rs two crore to Rs four crore per school has been estimated from the school, wise Detailed Project Reports (DPRs).

Additionally, through the approval from the government, 200 government schools in the seven districts of the Kalyana Karnataka region have been upgraded to KPS schools by utilizing the funds of the Kalyana Karnataka Regional Development Board (KKRDB) including 50 schools which were announced in the 2025, 26 Budget and the remaining 150 schools will be approved for the 2025, 27 period.

The instruction allows the amalgamation of smaller government schools located within a radius of one to five km into KPS schools, thereby offering free student transportation through School Development and Monitoring Committees (SDMCs), the implementation of uniform Karnataka Public School Standards, the commencement of computer education right from Class one, the introduction of a vocational skill, based curriculum from Class six, and special coaching for board and competitive exams from Class eight.