Protest in Bengaluru over 'magnet' school plan; activists warn 40k govt schools at risk

The Karnataka government’s proposed plan to merge state-run schools with low enrolment with Karnataka Public School (KPS) Magnet Schools has faced strong opposition. Educationists and student organisations have alleged that the project, which aims to provide quality education from lower kindergarten (LKG) to the pre-university (PU) level under one roof, is part of a plan to close government schools.

Protest held in Bengaluru

A big protest rally was held at Freedom Park in the state capital Bengaluru on Friday (April 10), where a demand was raised for the immediate reversal of the scheme. The occasion saw the presence of representatives of women organisations, students’ bodies, writers, and activists, besides workers and farmers who are dependent on government schools for their children’s education. Thousands of students, guardians, educationists and members of the public came to the venue from different parts of the state to express outrage against the government’s decision.

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Poet-teacher S G Siddaramaiah, writer and critic Marula Siddappa, and educationist Niranjanaradhya were among those present in the rally.

“Government schools will not be allowed to close for any reason. Closing small schools in the name of the magnet scheme will deprive rural children of their right to education. 40,000 schools are in danger of closing due to the merger of government schools under the KPS Magnet School Scheme,” the Karnataka president of All India Democratic Students’ Organisation (AIDSO), K S Ashwini, told The Federal. The protesters warned that if the government does not respond to the demands immediately, they will intensify their movement in the coming days.

“There should be a massive people's struggle against the KPS Magnet scheme. This struggle should be the way to save government schools as well as strengthen them. To ensure quality education in government schools, all the vacant teacher posts should be filled first. The KPS Magnet scheme should be abandoned,” demanded pro-Kannada activist Avalamurthy at the rally.

Merging 8-10 govt schools in a radius of 5-10 km

Under the scheme, the state government’s vision is to set up 6,000 KPS schools, one for each gram panchayat in the state. But the plan to establish one KPS school by combining eight to 10 government schools within a radius of five to 10 kilometres has drawn the protesters’ ire.

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They have already stood up against the merger of government schools in about seven villages in the Honganur Gram Panchayat in the Channapatna Taluka of Bengaluru South (formerly Ramanagara) district. In other parts of the state, too, an angry mood is found to be building against the execution of the KPS Magnet Schools scheme.

The government has not shown any intent to loosen its stand on the matter either. It even served ‘show-cause notices’ to teachers of five government schools for allegedly failing to enrol students in the Honganur KPS.

What is KPS Magnet School plan?

The KPS Magnet School Scheme is the ‘hub and spoke’ model that the Congress-led government of Karnataka was planning to implement a few days ago. The project aims to identify KPSs as magnets and merge the schools around them into composite and resource centres, hence the name "magnet". It is inspired by the magnet school system in the US.

The government has ordered to start 200 KPS schools in the Kalyana-Karnataka region and also 100 in the mining-affected talukas, using KKRDB (Kalyana Karnataka Region Development Board) funds and KMERC (Karnataka Mining Environment Restoration Corporation) funds, respectively.

Magnet schools are identified in each cluster using a scoring method based on grade coverage, enrolment, location and infrastructure. Small schools within a radius of three to five kilometres are set to be merged with KPSs. The goal is to, besides integrating education, provide improved facilities and reduce drop-out rates, and achieve excellence in education.

The state education minister, Madhu Bangarappa, has assured in the state legislature that not a single government school will be closed; however, the critics are not convinced.

'To close over 40,000 govt schools'

“The state government is preparing to start KPS magnet schools in order to close more than 40,000 government schools in the state. In order to merge government schools with KPS, it has taken a loan of Rs 2500 crore from the Asian Development Bank. It is preparing to start magnet schools. Our organisation will strongly oppose this,” Ashwini said.

Subhash Bettadakoppa, state treasurer of the AIDSO, echoed Ashwini’s words to tell this website, “The KPS Magnet scheme that the government intends to launch is aimed at closing down more than 40,000 government schools. The All India Democratic Students' Union will strongly oppose.”

'Move will deprive poor children, promote privatisation'

Alleging that the scheme will result in more adverse consequences, he said the magnet schools will deprive children of wage labourers, farmers and especially girls from remote areas of their right to education. Bettadakoppa is also apprehensive that in future, private hands will take over the KPSs.

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“The intention is to privatise the education sector in a phased manner. That is why we are opposing the KPS Magnet scheme,” he told The Federal.

Tulsi, a member of the AIDSO’s Bengaluru district secretariat, said a protest has been underway for the last four months to condemn the government’s decision. Villagers are also protesting, and meetings of students and teachers condemning the plan are also being organised at the taluk and district levels, she said.

Sources in the AIDSO also alleged that efforts were already underway to shut 359 schools in Doddaballapur taluk in Bengaluru North (formerly Bengaluru Rural) district and start six KPS Magnet Schools.

Krishnappa, an AIDSO district official, confirmed to The Federal that government school teachers have received verbal instructions from the field education officers. He said an awareness drive has also been launched in every village of the taluk against it over the past fortnight.

“The campaign to save government schools has been started from Doddaballapur itself,” he told The Federal.

Another source in the AIDSO said the process to include several schools in Doddaballapur, including Islampur Government School, Elepet School, Khasbagh Government School, and others under the KPS Magnet scheme has begun. These schools will be brought into the Rojipur KPS Magnet School, it was learnt from the source.

There are 47,493 government schools and PU colleges in Karnataka. Of these, 19,603 are primary schools, 21,676 are upper primary schools, 4,895 are high schools, and 1,319 are PU ones. Currently, nearly three lakh students have received education in 309 KPS schools, from LKG to PU. The number of KPS schools was 176 in 2018-19, when they started.

Student enrolment plummets

In 2015-16, students’ enrolment in the government schools was 47.1 lakh. In 2025-26, it fell to 38.2 lakh. On the other hand, the enrolment rate in private schools has increased from 36.3 lakh in 2015-16 to 47 lakh in 2025-26.

The number of government schools with 50 or fewer students enrolled has increased to 25,683 in 2025-26.

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The problem of drop-out is also closely related to this issue. The rate in the lower primary school category is 2.50 per cent, which goes to 2.91 per cent in the upper primary school, and 22.88 per cent in high schools. The number of students progressing from primary to high school has decreased significantly.

Over 17L students dropped out in last 15 overs

Several surveys have revealed that more than 17 lakh children have dropped out of school in the last 15 years, several of them due to poverty. In such a situation, the decision to close government schools that shape the future of poor children has raised serious questions.

The state government, however, argues that the best solution to reduce the dropout rate is by providing education from primary to PU classes under one roof.

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The protesters have also said that merging of schools would mean the children would have to travel long distances to receive education. In the hilly areas, it would be more challenging, including for the girl students.

The KPS system also faces many problems. There is a lack of continuous monitoring by the education department. There is no quality operating policy for KPS schools, either, besides a shortage of teachers. A student will also need to obtain at least four transfer certificates to continue his education in a single KPS school.

Existence of four different UDISE (Unified District Information System for Education) codes and maintenance of four different bank accounts by KPS schools and colleges are also among other challenges.

(This article was originally published in The Federal Karnataka.)