Karnataka Legislative Council Opposition Chief Whip N. Ravikumar on Monday alleged that the state government was neglecting education, citing 79,694 vacant teacher posts, staffing gaps in universities and poor conditions in thousands of school buildings.
Speaking at a press conference in Kalaburagi, Ravikumar said 2,84,881 government posts were vacant across Karnataka, including the teacher vacancies. His statement was reported by Prajavani. The supplied report does not include a response from the state government to the allegations.
Ravikumar also claimed that 13,599 posts were vacant in the state’s universities. According to him, vice-chancellors and registrars were working in-charge arrangements, while in some universities almost all staff apart from these two positions had been appointed on a contractual basis.
The education infrastructure concerns he raised extended to schools. Ravikumar alleged that 40% of schools did not have toilets and that 14,000 school buildings were in extremely poor condition. He said the staffing and infrastructure gaps were preventing the creation of an adequate support system for children’s education.
He also criticised the government’s treatment of guest teachers, alleging that they were employed for only eight to nine months in a year and then removed. He said the government should not “deceive” teachers, according to the report.
The statement linked the vacancies to broader questions about public-sector recruitment and administration. Ravikumar alleged that the Congress government had promised before the election to restore the old pension scheme for government employees but had not acted on the issue three and a half years after forming the government. The report does not provide details of the government’s current position on the pension demand.
Ravikumar further alleged that ₹53,000 crore meant for Dalit communities under the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan had been misused. He also questioned why the caste census and population census were not being implemented after being conducted. These claims were made as part of his wider criticism of the state administration and are not independently established in the supplied report.
The press conference was attended by BJP MLA Basavaraj Mattimadu, former MP Umesh Jadhav, former legislators Rajkumar Patil Telkur and Dattatreya Patil Revoor, BJP and JD(S) district leaders and other local party representatives. Ravikumar also said that NDA candidates would win four Legislative Council constituencies in the upcoming election and referred to Shashil Namoshi as an NDA candidate campaigning on teachers’ issues.
The immediate administrative steps on filling vacant posts, improving school buildings and providing sanitation facilities were not specified in the report. Any government response or official data supporting or contesting the figures would clarify the status of the issues raised.
