Private educational institutions have been crying foul over the district authorities threatening parents in rural areas of not extending welfare schemes such as Asara pension, ₹1-a-kg rice scheme and others to them if they fail to send their children to government schools in the erstwhile Karimnagar district.
With the increasing number of private schools and the soon-to-be established KGBVs, model schools and residential schools, the enrolment in the government and ZP schools has come down drastically over the years. This academic year alone, the district authorities closed down 127 primary schools as the enrolment was less than 20 students. Given this, the chances of other government schools surviving are bleak.
Recently, the government teachers had asked the elected representatives to take a firm decision to increase the enrolment rate in the government schools. Responding to their request, the local bodies’ representatives at Jubileenagar village in Karimnagar rural mandal gave a list of parents, who are the beneficiaries of ₹1-a-kg rice scheme, to the ration shop dealer to stop rationing out rice to them who have not been sending their children to government schools. There have also been instances of parents being forced by the local elected representatives to admit their children in government schools. The parents were told that they would not be extended the benefits of any welfare scheme if they fail to do so. The local leaders have even gone to the extent of stopping the private school buses from entering villages in Jagtial region. The Telangana Recognised Schools’ Management Association (TRSMA) State general secretary, Y. Shekhar Rao, found fault with the authorities threatening the parents and forcibly making them send their children to the government schools against their wishes.
“I ask the leaders to send their children to government schools first and then ask others to follow suit. I want to know if government teachers themselves send their children to the State-run schools,” he asked.
Threatening the parents in such a way was undemocratic, he said and added that the association was planning to approach the State Human Rights Commission for suppressing the rights of people. Even the president of Telangana Rashtra Teachers’ Federation (TRTF) M. Prathap Reddy, who is also a government school headmaster, opposed the forcible enrolment of children. The government schools should win over the confidence of parents with quality education. The forcible enrolment of students would not strengthen the State-run schools, he opined.
