Schools rationalisation to hit education hard

​Hyderabad: The state government has been planning to rationalise government schools by closing down a few and merging some for better administration.

Lack of English medium education, not providing effective mid-day meals and lack of commitment from teachers are some of the reasons for closing down a few government schools.

However, Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari said that the rationalisation of schools and staff would be done after the Badi Bata programme slated from June 13 to 20.

Speaking to The Hans India, he said, “After examining the enrollment in schools, the government would come to a decision on rationalisation.”

But, the Education department authorities have already identified the schools to be rationalised. In the erstwhile Mahbubnagar district, the future of 324 schools is at stake on account of rationalisation.

Out of 3,369 government schools in the erstwhile Warangal district, there are no students in 155 schools, which are likely to be closed. The number of students is less than 20 in 672 schools.

In Peddapalli district, the state government proposes to merge 64 government schools as part of rationalisation as each of them has student strength of less than 10 students.

MLC Sudhakar Reddy said that the government should take mandal as a unit for rationalisation process. He said, “The government should speak to teachers’ unions in the first place on the issue and take their suggestions.”

He advised the Minister for Education to have a scientific approach on the rationalisation.In Yadadri-Bhongir district, there are plans to close down 114 out of the 466 government schools.

In Nalgonda district, out of 1,124 schools 307 are likely to be closed. In Suryapet district, 157 out of 684 face closure. The students of these schools would be merged with schools in the neighbouring villages.

In Karimnagar district, 138 schools are likely to be merged with schools in nearby villages. In Siricilla Rajanna district, the fate of 91 government schools hangs in balance. In Jagtial district, 52 schools might meet the same fate.

In Adilabad district, the number of students is less than 20 in 78 government schools. In Kumrambheem district, there are 161 schools with low student strength.

In Mancherial district, there are 154 such schools and 130 in Nirmal district. The closure of the primary schools would affect the livelihood of over 450 mid-day meals scheme workers in the four districts.

State general secretary of United Teachers’ Federation Chava Ravi said: “The government should analyse factors behind zero enrollment and low strength. The Supreme Court has also told the same to the government and appointed a committee to look into the issue.”

“The parents have been sending their kids to private schools expecting quality education. The government should establish model primary schools in each panchayat to instill confidence among people on the government educational institutions,” he said.

In Adilabad town, four government schools, 13 in Kumrambheem district, nine in Mancherial district and one school in Nirmal district were already closed down for want of students.

In Khammam and Bhadradri-Kothagudem districts, 150 government schools mostly in the Agency areas are facing the threat of closure.

In Nizamabad district, according to District education department reports, the existence of over 45 government schools is being threatened. In Kamareddy district, 11 schools with zero student strength and 23 schools with student strength less than 20 might be closed.