CJP to expand ‘School Thik Karo’ campaign across Karnataka, flags SIR impact on classrooms

The Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) on Thursday announced plans to expand its ‘School Thik Karo’ campaign across all 31 districts of Karnataka, putting the spotlight on the condition of government schools and the disruption caused by the deployment of teachers for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) duties.

The announcement came after a CJP delegation visited government schools in Bengaluru and met Karnataka’s Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa to present its findings. The organisation said it had visited four government schools in Bengaluru as part of the campaign and identified teacher deployment, poor infrastructure, and sanitation as recurring concerns.

SIR emerged as one of the most pressing issues raised by the delegation. In a government school in the Sarjapur area, CJP said eight of the nine teachers had been assigned SIR duties, leaving the school with only one teacher for regular academic work. At another school, three of the four teachers were on SIR duty. CJP National Secretary Afreen Nawaz, who hails from Karnataka, questioned how classroom teaching could continue when a substantial portion of the teaching staff was deployed for electoral work.

CJP said that if teachers have to be deployed for such duties, the government should ensure substitutes or alternative arrangements are made so that students do not lose instructional time. Co-convener of CJP Ashutosh Ranka, who spoke to the media at a press conference, demanded that the Election Commission make alternative arrangements to ensure school education is not affected.

Infrastructure and sanitation were the other major concerns identified by the campaign. At the Government Urdu School in Varthur, the delegation found severely dilapidated infrastructure and raised the issue with the Education Minister. CJP said repair work began soon after its visit. The delegation also found poor toilet hygiene at another school, while washrooms at a JP Nagar government school required attention despite the school having relatively good infrastructure.

CJP welcomed the government’s plan to upgrade more than 2,000 schools into Karnataka Public Schools, but said long-term plans should not come at the cost of addressing basic problems in schools currently attended by children. The party also cited 58,224 vacant teaching posts in Karnataka and called for a time-bound recruitment and deployment plan.

The next phase of ‘School Thik Karo’ will cover all 31 districts, with the organisation planning to document school conditions, take complaints to authorities, and return to schools to check whether promised repairs and corrective measures have been implemented.

CJP also announced plans to build a statewide organisation involving students, parents, teachers, education activists, and local communities to sustain the campaign beyond individual school complaints.

The organisation said its objective was simple: “We have visited the schools. We have seen the problems. We have taken them to the Education Minister.” Now, it plans to take the campaign to every district of Karnataka.

CJP, whose central campaign revolves around education and examination reforms, organised a major protest across the nation seeking accountability for the NEET paper leak. After the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on July 25, the party is now focused on school reforms across the nation.