Bengaluru, (DHNS): Primary and Secondary Education Minister N Mahesh told the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday that 58 government pre-university colleges with less than 10 students will be closed. However, the students and the faculty will move to a nearby college. “Action is being taken, based on some parameters, to shift 58 PU colleges having less than 10 students to a neighbouring college,” Mahesh said. He was responding to a question by Yeshwantpur legislator S T Somashekhar (Congress). According to PU director C Shikha, all the students and posts sanctioned in these 58 colleges will be moved to another college. “All the teachers will be posted to another college where they are needed”. This comes even as the government is facing flak over a proposal to merge 28,847 government and aided schools with low enrolment with 8,530 nearby schools. In a written reply to M P Renukacharya (BJP), Mahesh said 19 government PU colleges had been shifted in the last two years.

Seven new government PU colleges have been sanctioned including two each in Hadagali in Ballari district and Nanjangud in Mysuru district and one each in Shikaripur in Shivamogga district, Malavalli and Srirangapatna in Mandya district, the minister stated. During a debate, former primary and secondary education minister Tanveer Sait sought to clarify on the status of upgrading schools. “A survey has been done and 2,500 schools have been identified to be upgraded, which means a primary school will be upgraded to a high school and so on. The Finance department has cleared this,” Sait said before Aravind Limbavali (BJP) interrupted him. “Who is the education minister? This is a new government and there’s a new minister. Why is Sait speaking on behalf of the minister?” Limbavali asked.