Nizamabad: 630 schools face closure due to low student strength

Nizamabad: It seems that the closure of schools with lesser number of students is inevitable as per the reports that this exercise will start from the next academic year 2020-21. If this decision is implemented, about 633 schools in the joint Nizamabad district will be closed.

In last December, the officials of education department made a field-level survey and collected the details of all the government schools with a student strength of 10, 20 and 30.

There are 633 schools across the joint Nizamabad district and of this, 276 in Kamareddy and 357 in Nizamabad district are reportedly going to be closed. The reports have been submitted to the education department. Students and teachers of these schools will be adjusted in the nearby schools by next academic year. The teacher unions have outraged at the decision of closure of schools with lesser number of students. The union leaders alleged that already tens of thousands of schools were closed and argued that the closure of schools in the name of rationalisation will increase the number of dropouts. They felt that schools are treated with service and should not be closed due to financial problems. Appointment of one teacher for each class will improve the management and standards of education in schools, they added.

Telangana Prantha Upadhyaya Sangam (TPUS) member of Birkur Racha Shivakanth said the idea of closing government schools with a student strength of less than 30 in the name of rationalisation is not good. Stating that students are unable to attend the school in several areas, he demanded to recruit one teacher for each class and withdraw the schools' closure decision.