Nizamabad: Grants do not meet expenditure in government schools

Nizamabad: The constitution of village development committees has relieved the students studying in government schools from paying extra amount and increased students' strength in Nizamabad district.

The government says that everything is free for students studying in government schools. No fees for anything. But a few schools in Telangana collect fee from students. Sources said that some schools charge Rs 100 to Rs 200 to issue SSC marks memo and transfer certificates from each student. There have been many such incidents in Nizamabad district earlier.

But after the village development committees came into form in the district, this charging fee for issuance of certificates has been stopped.

However, there is no increase in the expenditure for the schools' maintenance. Teachers said that the maintenance of the school is still a burden and no school in the district cannot function properly if not even nominal fees are collected from the students. There are many costs involved in maintaining schools, they stated.

The staff of several government schools said that the government is not providing management grants to that extent. In case of many schools, the grants of the government are nominal and do not match with the expenditure.

Another major problem in government schools is toilet maintenance and no grants issued towards this for the last 12 months. Around Rs 30,000 grant has to issued to primary and secondary schools, but they were not released till date. Audit objections may arise if these funds are not given in accordance with the regulations.

The management of toilets has become a burden in schools. There is no scavengers' system in villages and people from towns has to come to the villages to clean the toilets.

The government is spending Rs 1,000 only for toilets' cleaning, but scavengers won't work unless they are paid Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000.

Without any choice, the teachers said that they manage the schools and expenditure with the help of village development committees. They said there are 1,157 schools in the district with maintenance funding issues.

In some schools, however, the teachers as they cannot see the students suffer, spend an average of Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 from their pockets for the entire academic year.

Some schools have motors for borewells and Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 has to be expended to repair the motor, whenever they fail to work. The school management do not know how to manage this cost.

Along with sanctioning the school grant, the government also clearly gives certain guidelines on the spending of these grants. This amount should be spent for the expenses mentioned by the government only and should not deviate for other works.

Another problem is electricity bill. Earlier there were no fans, no computers etc. But now, these facilities are being provided in government schools also, thus increasing current bill. As per the government rules, the electricity bill should not exceed Rs 500 per month, but actually these bills are coming anywhere between Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000.

Average actual cost

Payable to DCEB district common examination board – Rs 20,000

Stationary cost (exam papers) – Rs 7,000

Special Fund Payments – Rs 3,000

Transportation costs – Rs 2,000

CCE, attendance register cards – Rs 10,000

School E-filing – Rs 3,000

Chalks, brooms, dustbins etc– Rs 5,000

Motor bore repairs – Rs 15,000

Sweeper, scavenger wages– Rs 20,000

August 15, January 26, June 2 national festivals – Rs 10,000

Formative summative – Rs 5,000

Grants come from the government SSA as per students – Rs 30,000

Library – Rs 10,000

Electricity bills – Rs 20,000

Repairs – Rs 15,000

Sanitation wages – Rs 10,000

Grant for sanitation – Rs 5,000