The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Government schools losing strength

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Saturday, Jun 21, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Government schools losing strength

S. Harpal Singh

With private institutions foraying into villages, the only attraction left with government schools is mid-day meal

Scarce: K. Yadagiri, head master of the Lalgad Government Primary School teaches four students in Std. V.

ADILABAD: Private schools in Adilabad district, mainly the unrecognised ones, have now started chipping the base off the school education in the government sector in the rural areas as is evident from the drastically fallen rate of admissions in Std. I of government primary schools.

The latest tactic used by some private schools to improve their own strength at the lowest level is the offer of delayed payment of fee.

This plan is aimed at attracting children from poor families in the rural areas, who actually form the backbone of school education in the ‘sarkari’ sector even now. Parents, especially those who are agricultural labourers, are given the choice of making the fee payment at the end of the crop season when they are paid their dues in lump sum by respective employers.

Enterprising as the private school managements are, they also keep on adding villages to their catchment areas. School buses are operated to bring students from villages that are sometimes even 20 km away from the school premises. The strength of the Mandal Parishad Primary School at Sunkidi in Talamadugu mandal has dropped to about 90 this year from the 259 when it opened in 2003-2004. At Lalgad Government Primary School, the strength has gone down to 35 students from 90 with which the school was established in 2001. “The few who have enrolled in Std. I this year and those from other classes who have stuck to the school do so because of the mid-day meal,” point out U. Gangadhar and K. Yadagiri, headmasters of Sunkidi and Lalgad schools. “The real culprits are the numerous unrecognised schools that have come up in the rural areas” reveals an official in the Education Department. “The government should deal with illegal institutions sternly in the interest of students. The vacant posts of supervisory officials should be filled immediately,” opines P. Satyanarayana, Adilabad district president of the Progressive Recognised Teachers Union.

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