<drop_initial>Dear Chief Minister, our school lacks adequate security measures, leaving our belongings vulnerable to theft. We humbly request the recruitment of Class-IV employees to safeguard our school premises.”
This poignant appeal has surfaced from the corridors of a government school in Telangana’s Mahabubnagar district, penned by class 8 student N. Srinidhi.
G. Aravind, a student of another school in the same district, echoes similar concerns in his letter to the Chief Minister — need for improved infrastructure, mainly toilets with sweepers, running water for the toilets, better security, lab equipment, library resources, and transportation facilities for students from neighbouring villages.
Such impassioned pleas have found resonance beyond the confines of Mahabubnagar; more than 20,000 postcards have been sent from various corners of Telangana to the CM’s office in Hyderabad, the State capital. Students from even the remotest villages, nestled within the hinterlands of Agency areas in Kumaram Bheem Asifabad and Mulugu districts, have fervently voiced their concerns and appealed for intervention.
Echoing this sentiment across Telangana is a State-wide student-led postcard campaign, spearheaded by a non-profit think-tank called ‘Dial Your Village’ (DYV) being run by Telangana NRIs. The campaign, which commenced on January 19 this year, aims to spotlight pressing issues in educational institutions in the State.
Originating from the Telangana movement, DYV, initially comprising NRIs, shifted focus to comprehensive development initiatives following the State’s formation in 2014. Notably, their ‘Dial Your Sarpanch’ programme, which directly addressed village-level issues, showcased their dedication to grassroots development. Over the span of four years, the organisation facilitated weekly discussions involving experts from various fields, shedding light on concerns ranging from education and healthcare to agriculture.
Central to the ongoing campaign is the critical analysis of government schools across Telangana. With 30,108 government institutions, including Gurukuls (residential schools run by Social Welfare, Tribal Welfare, and Minority Welfare departments) and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, the educational framework grapples with severe shortage of teachers, apart from deficiencies in infrastructure and essential amenities such as toilets, additional classrooms, libraries, and laboratories. Recent reports, including the Performance Grading Index compiled by the Central government, underscore the magnitude of these challenges, leading to Telangana’s low standing in terms of overall performance and infrastructure advancement.
“Like many others in the State, our school also lacks proper seating. There are no benches for students. They face problems in using the toilet due to poor maintenance. There is also a need for additional classrooms,” says Shiak Gousia, a teacher from Ashok Nagar village of Khanapur mandal in Warangal district. There are only two classrooms for the 106 students in this primary school (classes 1 to 5).
Mesram Kishore, a junior lecturer in Adilabad district, who led the campaign in the Gundala village of Narnoor mandal, laments the poor facilities in government schools. “The teachers do not turn up regularly as most of them reside far from the schools they are posted at, sometimes even 60 km away,” he explains.
The previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi government’s ‘Mana Ooru-Mana Badi’ initiative, introduced in March 2022 and aimed at holistic development and infrastructure enhancement in government schools in three phases, has fallen short of the intended outcomes.
Infrastructural gaps
A total of 8,761 schools have been renovated with around ₹3,000 crore in the first phase, according to official sources. A teacher from erstwhile Warangal district, however, says only 15% of the issues have been resolved in schools under the programme. “There have been large-scale irregularities in terms of infrastructural development in schools. In many cases, schools were not rebuilt and instead, patch work was done to show them as having been renovated. This corruption happened due to political interference whereby local sarpanches and other leaders were involved in overseeing development committees,” the teacher says, seeking anonymity, as he stresses the need for an audit of the works taken up under the initiative.
“We teachers are paying wages to the scavengers by contributing ₹150 each every month as the government is not appointing anyone to maintain the toilets. There are 20 teachers, including women,” he says.
He, however, notes that dining halls and kitchen sheds were built in most schools in the past 10 years, and alleges that the government-funded school development projects have been prioritised in areas where local Minister or MLAs have shown interest in initiating the works.
“Since government schools are plagued by multiple issues, we have taken up the postcard movement. Though 20,000 letters have been sent to the CM’s office, we have, so far, not received any response officially from the State government. However, Burra Venkatesham, Principal Secretary for Education, Telangana, has appreciated our efforts,” says Ravi Mayreddy, who runs a consulting company in the U.S.
Since he hails from the erstwhile Mahabubnagar district and lives in Chester Springs, near Philadelphia, he has been actively working for the development of schools not only in Mahabubnagar, but also in other parts of Telangana with the help of his NRI friends and others since he is an active member of the Telangana NRI Association.
Meanwhile, a concerning trend is evident in Telangana’s educational landscape, even as more than 13,000 schools are grappling with dwindling student enrolments. Among them, a staggering 1,213 schools report zero attendance.
Various factors have contributed to this decline. Over the past decade, the focus on residential educational institutions, such as those operated by Social Welfare, Tribal Welfare, and Minority Welfare departments, has overshadowed regular day schools, say teachers. Consequently, the neglect of these day schools has led to a surge in schools without students.
Moreover, the absence of a standardised teacher-student ratio exacerbates the situation. Disparities abound, with some schools having an excess of teachers compared to student numbers, while others struggle with severe shortages.
The State has 2,98,983 teachers, including 1,33,788 in government schools, 3,058 in government-aided, 1,61,662 in private unaided recognised, and 475 in other schools.
Budget allocation
Despite the government annually recruiting temporary teachers, known as Vidya Volunteers, there remains a failure to appoint permanent ones despite persistent protests from aspiring educators. In the recent State Budget for 2023-24, the education sector received an allocation of 7.75% (₹21,389 crore), a slight increase from the previous year’s 6.24%.
However, this falls short of addressing urgent needs of the sector.
Telangana’s allocation also pales in comparison to that of other States, ranking at the bottom among the top 20 States nationwide. Delhi, for instance, earmarked 21.1% of its budget for education.
Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Education’s Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2.0 for the year 2021-22, Telangana scored 479.9. The PGI is a comprehensive assessment tool to evaluate the performance of the school education system at the State/UT level.
PGI 2.0 structure consists of 1000 points across 73 indicators grouped in two categories: Outcomes and Governance Management. These categories further break down into six domains, namely Learning Outcomes, Access, Infrastructure & Facilities, Equity, Governance Process, and Teachers Education & Training. For 2021-22, States/UTs were classified into 10 grades, with the highest achievable grade being Daksh, awarded to States/UTs scoring over 940 points out of 1000. The lowest grade is Akanshi-3, designated for scores up to 460.
Social activist Vandemataram Ravinder, who has been working towards eradication of child labour and empowerment of villages and also one of the pioneers of the postcard campaign, stresses the need for development of infrastructure. “Due to the lack of quality education in government schools, parents are forced to send their wards to private schools despite exorbitant fees as they know the value of a good education in this competitive world,” he says.
Bhukya Devender, an assistant professor of Education at Pondicherry University who has extensively researched issues pertaining to tribal education and employment in Telangana, faults the government for neglecting regular schools following the establishment of residential schools.
Coming back to the postcard campaign, students from the Government Primary School in Sitarampatnam, Palvancha, have penned down their grievances, seeking resolution to various issues. They have highlighted a shortage of teachers, given that there are only two instructors for 60 students, and requested for appointment of educational volunteers to meet this inadequacy.
Further, the students have sought improvements in infrastructure, drawing parallels to traditional Gurukuls, and emphasising the need for adequate seating and essential supplies such as notebooks, bags and shoes, apart from the provision of nutritious meals.
Tukkani Srinivas Reddy, a teacher and representative of the District NRI Foundation, voices concerns over the neglect of government schools over the past decade. He calls for a concerted effort to address the deficiencies, through infrastructure development and resource allocation.
The current government led by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy recently announced the formation of ‘Amma Adarsha Patashala Committees’ for maintenance and other emergency works in all government schools operating under the School Education department. These committees will be formed by the Village Organisations and Area Level Federations.
During a recent gathering with officials in Hyderabad, Revanth Reddy reiterated the government’s commitment to elevating school standards by ensuring free electricity, investigating basic facilities, and engaging women’s self-help groups for school supervision.
Plans also include establishing digital classrooms, sourcing CSR funds, and analysing the National Education Policy, reflecting a comprehensive approach towards educational advancement under the Amma Adarsha Patashala programme.
