Decline and fall of good education system

The irony is that no one who is important and influential in the society evinces any interest in them because all their children study in better private institutions. They only help and patronise the rich private institutions where their children study

There was a sound and well-conceived education system in Hyderabad State before the formation of Andhra Pradesh which produced many eminent professionals in all fields who were known for their competence and caliber as well as for their integrity.

Among hundreds, PV Narasimha Rao, Burgula Ramakrishna Rao, Marri Chenna Reddy, Justice Gopal Rao Ekbote, Ravi Narayan Reddy, Raj Bahaddur Goud, Dr. Melkote, Ramanand Thirtha, Pundit Narendra, Aliyavar Jung, CH Rajeshwar Rao, CH Hanmanth Rao, J Gautham Rao, P Narayan Rao, Suravarm Prathap Reddy, Raja Bahadur Venkat Ram Reddy, Justice P Jagan Mohan Reddy, Mahadev Singh, T Navaneeth Rao, Dr M. Balwanth Reddy, Prof G Ram Reddy, Justice Sardar Ali Khan, Jayshankar, B Narsing Rao, Vandemataram Ramchander Rao, Dasarathi, Kaloji, Anand Rao Thota, Konda Lakshman Bapuji, V Jaapathi Rao, P Ramchandra Reddy, P Narsing Rao, are only a few.

Though Urdu was the medium of instruction except in a few private and public institutions, the standard of education was very high and they produced luminaries in science, arts, commerce fine arts and sports. The institutions were able to function at their optimum level giving out their best to the students because they were well funded and looked after very well.

Telugu, Urdu and English languages were kept on par and never discriminated either in learning or in teaching. They were not only given equal importance but were also treated as important as the 'optionals', as communication abilities were always kept on high pedestal.

School and college education was affordable. The biggest gain of the system of education was 'secularism'. Though every school had a large number of Hindu and Muslim teachers and students, there was never any communal feeling among them.

That is the reason why in Telangana, as compared to the other region, people are more secular as secularism has evolved from the culture that they inherited through the education system that nursed humanism and universalism in them.

As against such a system of education which was in vogue in the then Telangana, Andhra rulers, as soon as Andhra Pradesh was formed, encouraged the private sector, and deliberately starved the government institutions of funds and staff.

Many a school has been denied and deprived of sufficient staff; many unqualified and untrained teachers have been appointed on ad hoc and contractual basis, consolidated salary; many teachers have been asked to handle subjects in which they were not qualified; inspection system has been virtually given up; meager budget allocations have been made, and all these to deliberately cripple the institutions.

Indiscipline has become the order of the day and teachers and students have started indulging in politics. Many teachers have started businesses even while working in schools. In other words, government schools have started declining and decaying with the government losing control over them. All this has happened and is still happening in the government schools in general. Exceptions are very few.

The result is that the government schools and colleges are today considered as poor people’s institutions. Those who fail to get admissions in better private sector institutions opt for government ones as a last resort.

The irony is that no one who is important and influential in the society evinces any interest in them because all their children study in better private institutions. They only help and patronise the rich private institutions where their children study.

As if the damage inflicted on the government institutions is not enough, the rulers have also converted and are still converting the Telugu medium sections into English medium sections without strengthening the institutions to be on par with the better facilitated rich private institutions.

The ill-equipped English medium institutions so converted are losing their capacity to compete with the good English medium institutions. Among the many disadvantages the government institutions have, Telugu medium was the only advantage which enabled them to compete with the English medium students. Even that is now taken away. In short, this is the woeful story of our government institutions from KG to PG.

When PV Narasimha Rao was the PM, he had asked us the reasons for high student failures in exams in government institutions. We told him that “it is not the students who are failing but it is we who are failing them. We treat the government institutions like beggars and it is natural that we get the beggarly results out of them”. He smiled and agreed.

The very same schools which are failing now had earlier produced better results and better men for years and years because they were treated well by the government. It is not the medium of English that is doing miracles but it is adequately and appropriately funding and tending.

The Andhra leaders and administrators have willfully connived and conspired to damage education in Telangana only to enable the corporate educationists in Andhra area to establish institutions here to mint money.

This has been going on for 60 years. Today the politics of state is dictated and directed through the politicians by five lobbies - the liquor lobby, the real estate lobby, the minerals and the granites lobby, the educational lobby and the contractors lobby. If they are not handled effectively, future Telangana will also be ruled by them as it is happening now.

(The writer is former chairman of Telugu Academy.
With inputs from educationists
Dr Rafia Sultana,
Dr J Ramanaiah, Mrs Shama Parveen, D Subba Rao and
K Lokender Rao)