The Andhra Pradesh government’s decision to bring the municipal schools under the purview of the School Education Department has sent the teachers into a huddle.
The officials maintain that the move is aimed at ensuring holistic and comprehensive development of the civic schools on a par with the educational institutions run by the government and Zilla Parishad.
“Bringing the municipal schools under the School Education Department will ensure proper academic monitoring. The Department of Municipal Administration also wants complete takeover of these schools by the government,” says an official under the condition of anonymity.
The fact that 90% of the schools are under the purview of the School Education Department, leaving only 10% under the Municipal Administration wing. And this is partly why the government is said to be moving in this direction.
“Education is not a priority area for municipal administrators, who have many other important things to attend to,” reasons out the official, explaining that the service matters of the municipal teachers, however, would be handled separately.
“The teachers will continue to work in the urban local bodies and the children will also not be shifted from their existing schools,” clarifies the official.
The municipal teachers’ associations, however, are apprehensive. They aver that the initial proposal of shifting the task of academic monitoring of their schools has undergone a change in a manner that it will have an adverse impact on the entire municipal education system.
‘Glorious history’
The 2,115 municipal schools in the State have properties worth crores of rupees. The municipal education system that was started in 1858 has a glorious history. During the freedom struggle, many Samaritans had donated land, built buildings and these facilities were being used for various activities to promote the spirit of patriotism. Later, they gave away these buildings to municipal bodies, explain the associations.
They allege that the authorities are collecting detailed information of the properties of municipal schools and they have released a model Preamble with an intention to get it approved by the council. “The plan is to secure the nod of Mayors and Chairpersons, ward members and corporators in 22 Municipal Corporations and 110 Municipalities in the State for takeover of the vast properties,” says Municipal Teachers’ Federation (MTF) State president S. Ramakrishna.
He says that as per norms, any decision on the merger would be possible only with the consent of the Parents’ Management Committees, adding that the court ruling on unified service rules would also not permit it.
The MTF has called for constitution of Municipal School Teachers’ Parirakshana Joint Action Committees in every town to oppose the government move.
“In urban slums, the responsibility of providing education to the SCs, STs and BCs is that of the civic body council. The quality of English medium education imparted by municipal schools is better than that of government schools,” says Mr. Ramakrishna.
Protests galore
Meanwhile, the leaders of Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Federation staged a demonstration at the municipal office in Chittoor against the proposal on Saturday. Teachers in Nellore and Kadiri towns formed a JAC and submitted a representation to the municipal officials. At Dharmavaram, leaders of the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Organisations also staged a protest.
