Andhra Pradesh - Guntur   

212 schools to be closed in Guntur

Staff Reporter

UTF, SFI activists organise dharna demanding status quo

GUNTUR: State Government is proposing to close down permanently 212 schools at various levels in Guntur district as patronage for these schools is too low and the financial burden is too large, according to United Teachers’ Front and Students Federation of India.

The State Government has identified 6,200 schools state-wide for such closure as in all of them the number of students was below 20 in single teacher schools and in multi-teacher schools it was below 100. The UTF and SFI activists on Tuesday organised a dharna in front of the District Education Officer’s office here demanding status quo on these schools.

Member of Legislative Council K.S. Lakshmana Rao said that it was the poorest of the poor who come to these schools and just because the State Government was unable to attract enough number of students, the school should not be shifted/closed or clubbed with another one far away. At the dharna the activists demanded immediate distribution of textbooks to all students at the earliest as it was more than a week that schools had reopened. Out of 31 lakh books to be distributed in the district, the Department of School Education was able to procure only 19 lakh books. Out of the schools to be closed eight high schools also had been identified, they added. When contacted District Education Office Movva Ramalingam told The Hindu that th ere was no concrete proposal from the State Government to close down any school or merge some of them. He, however, said that some teachers were surplus at some schools, who would be redeployed in the neighbouring schools according to the need.

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