Teachers in government schools in Karnataka are having a hard time as annual grants to schools for the current academic year has not yet been released by the state government, The New Indian Express reported.
Fed up after their repeated requests to district authorities fell on deaf ears, teachers have decided to close schools for three days in January as a mark of protest, the report states.
"The grants are necessary for schools. But this year, the government has not released the funds yet," Karnataka State Primary School Teachers' Association president Basavaraj Gurikar told NIE.
"Every year, these grants are released during June when schools open for that academic year. We have submitted requests at the district-level. Since it has not borne any result, we have decided to protest by closing the schools," he added.
The dates to the protest are yet to be decided.
According to the report, the government provides Rs 15,000 as annual maintenance grant and Rs 7,000 as basic grant for primary schools and Rs 15,000 as maintenance grant and Rs 5,000 as basic grant for lower primary schools to the over 46,000 government schools in the state.
The NIE report further states, "The education sector has always received the highest allocation in the State budget. During the 2014-15 budget presented by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the total amount set aside for the sector was Rs 21,305 crore, Rs 2,639 crore more that allocated in 2013-14. The Primary and Secondary Education Department has received as much as Rs 17,425 crore of it this year."