State govt constitutes Advisory Council

Apart from the ministers and Principal Secretaries of the Department of Primary and Secondary Education, RVM, BC, Minority, Social, Women and Child Tribal Welfare, members were drawn from different categories.

Prof Endluri Sudhakar, Dean, Potti Sriramulu Telugu University, Rajamundry Peetham; Dr C Jangaiah, Associate Professor, Department of Education, EFLU; Chandrakala, Assistant Professor, Department of Education, Dr B R Ambedkar Open University, Ayodhaya, Retd. Professor, Department of Education, Osmania University; E R Appa Rao, Retd. Regional Joint Director of School Education; Rafath Hussaini, Director, Princess Esin Education Society, Hyderabad; Jayanthi Narayan, formerly, Head of Special Education, National Institute of Mentally Handicapped, B Murali Mohan, Advocate; K G Vijayalakshmi, Professor in Education (Retd), Padmavathi Mahila University, Tirupati. G A Narayana Rao, Director, Sister’s Educational Trust, Visakhapatnam; K Manohar Prasad, IAS (Retd), Dhan Foundation NGO, Utnoor, Adilabad District; Nallani Rajeswari, Uday Educational Institutions, Anantapuram; and members of recognised teacher unions were made members.

No specific time frame was mentioned for the Council to submit its report. The government has also not clarified the terms of reference if any.

Many issues have been plaguing the RTE Act implementation and S Sailajanath, till recently held the Primary Education portfolio and RTE conducted several state level meetings on various aspects of the Act.

One of the key issues that remain unaddressed was implementation of 25 per cent of seats to the children of economically weaker sections of the society in private and corporate institutions. Though some committees have been formed in the past, the issue could not be taken up as the private institutions questioned the reimbursement factor. Government prepared some guidelines on it but at the political level, no decision was taken.