A government primary school teacher Veeranna Madiwalar, who has been issued a notice by the Education Department for voicing his opinion about the State government’s policy on merger of schools, says he has not violated any law.
“I have not criticised any policy of the State government. Nor have I objected to its plans or actions. I have only voiced my concern about the state of education, as a concerned citizen and poet,’’ he said.
“A few days ago, I wrote a poem on the government announcement that it plans to merge over 13,800 schools. This means that nearly a third of the total government schools in the State will be closed. I was worried and concerned about this. When government schools close down, it is children from the backward classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and minority communities that suffer,” he said.
