The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Mergers hit admissions

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Tuesday, Jun 24, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Mergers hit admissions

J.S. Ifthekhar

Enrolments have not crossed double digit in many schools

Hyderabad: It’s a case of being penny wise and pound foolish. The academic clubbing of schools to rationalise use of facilities appears to have backfired.

Fresh enrolment has hit a roadblock. It has not crossed double digit in several schools as parents are in a dilemma about sending their wards to schools merged and shifted to far off places.

That the merger decision is taken post-haste is obvious. How else can one explain the shifting of 6th and 7th sections from the Government Boys Upper Primary School (Urdu medium), Aghapura ‘D’ ward, to Government High School, Goshamahal, near Gandhi Bhavan, when they could have been clubbed with the Government Girls High School, Nampally, situated on the same premises?

Interestingly, this high school where CBSC syllabus has been introduced under ‘SUCCESS’ scheme, is not clubbed with any upper primary sections.

The shifting of upper primary classes has put a question mark on the career of several students. At Aghapura GBUPS, 24 girls are likely to discontinue studies as their parents are unwilling to send them some 3 km away in a busy area like Gandhi Bhavan.

Plea to Collector

Parents have already petitioned Collector Navin Mittal to retain 6th and 7th sections and upgrade the Aghapura GBUPS into a high school.

This school serves as catchment area for the surrounding slums of Subhanpura, Darussalam, Habibnagar, Patel Nagar, Aghapura.

Shifting of the upper primary sections will mean depriving children of these areas from education.

“I can’t allow my daughter to walk all the way to Gandhi Bhavan, a heavy traffic zone area, to reach the new school,” says Farzana Begum of Habeebnagar, echoing the views of many parents.

Primary classes

Interestingly, the merger decision has also affected admissions in the primary classes. The number of new admissions in the Aghapura GBUPS is just 25 as against 100 last year.

Usually 6th and 7th class students escort their younger brothers and sisters studying in lower classes. But with their own sections gone, the education of their siblings is in jeopardy.

“Parents are in two minds about enrolling their kids in the lower classes,” says GBUPS headmaster Abdul Moid.

The district administration is taking pains to proclaim that no schools are closed down.

But the fact remains that 197 schools have been merged which in effect means their closure. Of this the Urdu medium schools alone are 97.

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