Lack of infra, teachers hits schools

SORRY STATE OF AFFAIRS

• Students, after exhausting all the avenues, represented their problem to the High Court
• High Court, after examining the situation, directed the government to fill teachers posts
• But alas, the officials washed of their hands by appointing a few Vidya volunteers

Mahbubnagar: With just 55.04 per cent of literacy rate, Mahbubnagar (Palamuru) is a way behind the National average of 65.46 per cent in literacy. It is attributed to paucity of teachers and infrastructure in government schools in the district.

The students have taken the burden of bringing the difficulties being faced by them to the notice of higher-up upon their shoulders. They have represented the sorry state of affairs to the High Court by sending a letter the Chief Justice.

As many as 100 students from Gattue and Jeera mandals, after representing the matter to one and all, ranging from local leaders to the District Education Officer, decided to write a letter to the
Chief Justice.

Taking their letter suo motu cognizance, the High Court appointed a lawyer to study the situation and submit a report to the court. After thorough investigation, the report was submitted to the court. The court took a serious note of the situation of education system in the government schools and directed the government to immediately act to fill all vacancies and provide basic infrastructure in the schools.

But alas, the situation in all the government schools in Ieeja and Gattu mandals has still remained unchanged. The government officials appointed a few Vidya volunteers in the schools and washed of their hands.

In Gattu and Ieeja mandals, there are about 62 government schools of which 42 are primary schools and 12 are upper primary schools. There are two Mandal Parishad and one each of Kasturba and Gurukula pathashalas in these mandals.

In all these schools there are 5,698 boys and 4,898 girls. But there are only 78 regular teachers and 127 Vidya volunteers. There are about 200 posts are lying vacant for many years. In fact, the teacher to student ratio in the government schools should be at least 1:30 as per Right to Education Act. But here each teacher is entrusted with the responsibility of teaching between 75 and 100.

In about eight government schools in Ieeja mandal there is no sign of drinking water and toilets for the students. “We are almost about to complete our academic year, but till date we have not received our textbooks.

We have no teachers to teach English and Hindi subjects. Despite of our representations to the officials there is no action,” said a student from Ieeja Mandal. For instance, a small village Yellamdoddi, about 3 km from Gattu, there is a primary government school brimming with 130 students, but this school has only one regular teacher and two temporary teachers.

This school has no compound wall and the surrounding villagers dump their garbage adjacent to the school wall causing serious health hazard to the students. “We are having no teachers to teach the English, Maths, Social and Biological Science subjects.

In another upper primary school in Chintakunta village in Gattu there are about 330 students and only one regular teacher managing the show along with five vidya volunteers. In fact Gattu mandal in the district has recorded the least literacy rate in the district with 34.4 per cent during the 2011 census.

The main reason for this is due to lackadaisical attitude of the leaders, officials and respective governments both in the state and the Centre, felt the people of Gattu.