There are 150 unrecognised schools operating across Krishna district. All of them are private schools and as many as 125 of them are located in the city.
Notwithstanding the series of warnings issued by the Education Department against operating schools in violation of the norms, a good number of them have been thriving across the district for years.
“We have been able to bring down the number of unauthorised schools from 230 last year to 150 this academic year.
It is not possible to close down the schools abruptly because it affects the future of children studying in these schools. We have served notices and we are ready to impose penalties also. In majority of the cases, there are technical problems like lack of enough space for playground or other infrastructure facilities,” Krishna District Education Officer D. Devanand Reddy told The Hindu on Wednesday.
Vidya Sambaralu
The department, meanwhile, is gearing up to launch Vidya Sambaralu, a special educational drive designed to be implemented in three different phases and bring back all out-of-school kids into education fold.
The first phase of the ‘Sambaralu’ comes into effect on June 1 and will continue till June 11, one day before the schools will re-open.
Waking up early to some of the basic needs of schools which act as major hindrance at a later stage, teachers this year are being made to visit their respective schools to oversee the admission process, publicise the facilities available in government schools to rope in new admissions and supervise sprucing up of the classrooms and school buildings to welcome students in the fresh academic year.
Identification of five-plus age group children and out-of-school kids and their enrolment in schools will culminate in a ‘collective Aksharabhyasa’ on June 12.
In the second phase (June 12 to June 20), the authorities concerned will take up distribution of textbooks and uniforms to schoolchildren. The third phase of the programme will comprise a series of regional-level seminars.
The DEO says innovative programmes designed by the department such as ‘Alert, Shabash and Impact will continue this year.
Alert is all about laying stress on teachers’ role in imparting quality education, ‘Shabash’ about shifting focus on the examination preparedness of the below-average 10th class students and under ‘Impact’, sharp and bright students are identified and imparted a special crash course.
The DEO said the two model English medium schools sanctioned for Krishna district are coming up at Gampalagudem and Reddygudem mandals.
