Karnataka DSERT moots uniform format for school names

The education department has drafted a proposal to get private schools to rename themselves in accordance with the format followed by government schools. It wants a school's name to indicate its status, medium of instruction among other details.

Authorities argue that mush rooming of private schools and their 'fancy names' make it difficult for the public to ascertain whether the school receives governmental aid or is unaided whether it offers Kannada or English as medium and whether the school is co-educational. "There is confusion in identifying schools properly, because every road has one today," said S Jayakumar, directorat the Department of State Education Research and Training (DSERT), the academic wing of the education department that has mooted the idea.

"For example, what can one know from a private school whose name is just Shubhodaya School. We would like its name board to read as Shubhodaya Unaided English School in order to help parents identify the school better," he said.

If the proposal comes through, these could be examples of renamed schools in Bengaluru: Sophia Unaided English Girls High School, Inventure Unaided English High School or Clarence Unaided English High School. Such naming is in line with the format followed by government schools. The draft proposal, accessed by ET, also seeks uniformity in the names of some government schools named after nonprofits or donors.For example, the Gangamma Thimmaiah School in Rajajinagar is actually a government school, but is named after the philanthropist couple for aiding the school's development. "We want the 'government' to clearly reflect in the names. It will underline the government's efforts and also help public tell a private school from a govern ment school," an officer said.

Private schools, however, are not ready to let go of names on which they have built their identities for years. "I don't think it is a good idea," said Deepa Sridhar, principal, Sri Kumaran's Children Home."Each one of us has our own identity, so why put us all in one naming bracket? It makes more sense to publish a directory of schools instead. Most schools have websites anyway . Even the CBSE and ICSE have a publicly-available list of schools," she said.

Jayakumar maintained that the primary identity of schools would remain intact. "Let them agree or not. We are sending this proposal to the government."