When primary education minister Mr.Kageri announced that free education for children in the age group of 6 & 14 will be implemented in Karnataka shortly, it was indeed something to cheer for.
At around the same time, we saw the ‘Ba Magu Shaalege’ take off at  Bantwal. For all the non-Kannadigas out there, ‘Ba Magu Shaalege’ means ‘Come to school, child’. This is an innovative project which encourages parents to choose government schools over private ones.
Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat Higher Primary School, Pilimogaru welcomed 11 new students who have taken admission in the school. This school is one of 196 government schools in the taluk that offer a variety of incentives to parents, if they enrol their children in the government schools. Sounds interesting? There’s more…….

Spoken English is taught here once a week and so is Yoga and Yakshagana. The school also conducts mock cabinet sessions and gardening classes too focusing on the overall development of the children. If this isn’t tempting enough for the parents, the School Development and Monitoring Committee (SDMC) also deposits Rs.1000 in the child’s bank account!!!!!!

Generally when people think of government schools, they think of a shanty with no proper utilities. However, the school has all the requisite facilities like purified water, toilets, a playground and library. The government is working on providing quality education and is trying to attract more students to enrol. The block education officer of Bantwal taluk visits every house encouraging parents to send their children to government schools. Parents are welcome to assess the school.

Parents who have enrolled their children so far are satisfied with the quality of education provided and some have even commented on this being better than private schools! Kudos to the administration at Bantwal, who are walking the extra mile to provide quality education to all!