Mangaluru : Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel on Sunday regretted that parents were chasing a dream of making their wards professionals by enrolling them in private schools and suffering twin tensions—paying high donation and tuition fee.

He pointed out that there was a primary school in every block, a junior college within a distance of 1 km and a college within 2 km offering quality education. The MP said a majority of achievers, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, PepsiCo chief executive officer Indra Nooyi and many more had studied in government schools. They were the ones who instil self-confidence and esteem in children making them to face life, he said.

Mr. Nalin was speaking after distributing notebooks worth Rs. 40,000 to students at a programme organised by Kalpa Trust and KIOCL Ltd. at Kuvempu Shatamanotsava government school in Nalyapadavu near Shaktinagar here.

Unlike the past, education today suffers from false notions, he said.

In the pursuit of high marks for their wards, parents failed to inculcate values among them. He mentioned about an incident where a student committed suicide after being ridiculed by parents for not scoring 96 per cent marks.

Mr. Nalin said due to dedicated efforts of teachers in government schools, children were becoming productive and patriotic. Assistant Commissioner in Central Excise in Bengaluru Abezeb D’Souza recollected with pride that his schooling in a government school in Kinnigoli helped him scale greater heights in his career.

KIOCL general manager V. Bobraj Jeyaharan, area councillor Akhila Alva, and the former MLC K. Monnappa Bhandary were present.