The municipal school that challenges corporates

The AKTP High School, the biggest school in Andhra Pradesh with 32 class rooms and 52 teachers, has a total of 1214 English medium students and 287 Telugu medium students this academic year. The success of school is attributed to the dedicated staff and students with commitment

​Vijayawada: Incredible it may sound, a school run by Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) tucked away in Satyanarayanapuram survived the corporate onslaught and retained its glow.

At a time when the state-run schools are starved of students and facing a threat of closure across the state, the municipal high school, named after Andhra Kesari Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu (AKTP), veteran freedom fighter and Andhra first chief minister, never misses the usual hustle and the bustle of students.

With over 1,500 students, it is considered to be the largest municipal school in the state. The secret of its success, according to school authorities, is it never lags behind in results and let its students not be denied of instruction in English medium.

Established in 1951, the AKTP school celebrated its diamond jubilee in 2011 on completing 60 years of its inception. The AKTP school has achieved more than 90 per cent results in the last four years and is aiming for the all round development of the Students.

Though the school initially started with instruction in Telugu medium in 1951, the English medium classes were introduced in 2001 to keep pace with the changing times and needs of the students. Now, English medium has more demand over Telugu medium in the High School. When corporate threat rattles the state-funded school education system in the state, the AKTP school has managed to retain its identity and looks unfazed for several decades.

A total of 1214 English medium students and 287 Telugu medium students are studying in 2016-17 academic year. The success of school is attributed to the dedicated staff and students with commitment, marked by low dropout rate and increasing enrolment.

The government is distributing text books free of cost and some donors are donating note books to help the children. Since the school is achieving more than 90 per cent pass percentage it is able to attract students from even middle and upper middle class families, disproving the notion that the government schools are meant for only poor students.

‘We are happy that there is a huge demand for the admissions in AKTP High School, said the Head Minister S Srinivasa Rao. ‘Every year we receive several hundreds of applications for admissions into various classes from sixth to tenth. The student intake has to be restricted with an inability to clear all the applications for want of sufficient classrooms, adds the Headmaster.

The AKTP High School happens to be the biggest school in Andhra Pradesh with 32 class rooms, 52 teachers and over 1500 students. He said the school needs another six classrooms to meet the requirements of teaching, lab, library etc, Srinivasa Rao said.

In order to get 100 per cent results in the SSC examinations, the school is conducting extra classes in morning and evening. Overwhelmed by the success of the school, some donors volunteered to provide snacks to children attending extra classes after school hours, said M Prabhakar, Physics teacher.

The school authorities are going the extra mile to give the best to its students in addition to the co-curricular activities. The school hosts career foundation course (CFC) regularly in a bid to help students pursue their future career goals.

The government is supplying study material free of cost to the children to earn basics in Physics, Maths, Botany, English and Chemistry, said N Sireesha, resources person of CFC course, Krishna district.

TVS Prakash NCC Officer said special coaching is being given to the students to hone their skills in essay writing, debating, drawing contests and spiritual events. He said the students of AKTP have participated in the Republic Day parade on many occasions and brought laurels to the school.

Special care is being taken for plantation on the school premises. More than 50 varieties of trees and plants are grown on the campus. English teacher Y Sambhu Prasad is taking special care and educating children about the protection of environment and growing trees. Some students cultivated the habit of gardening.