Lack of adequate teaching staff in government schools in Chandampet mandal of Nalgonda district is forcing parents to withdraw their children from these institutions and admit them in private schools.
As against the sanctioned strength of 222, the schools are having just 65 teachers. That the number of the teaching staff is less than the number of schools shows how pathetic are the standards in government institutions.
The mandal has a total of 78 schools comprising 66 primary, eight upper primary and four high schools. According to official statistics, the total student strength in these schools is 2,759. However, as many as 18 primary schools are not functioning as there are no teachers.
Among the remaining schools, 12 schools have a student strength below 10 each, while 10 schools have less than 20 children each. Since the mandal is located in a remote area, not many teachers, who were appointed here, come to the schools on time. They also leave the schools early in the afternoon because there will be no transportation available from the place late evening.
Some of the schools work for only two to four hours since the teachers come from Hyderabad, Nalgonda, Suryapet, Devarakonda and other faraway places. Poor monitoring by educational officials and district administration further added to the woes of children. Upper primary schools located at Guvvalagutta and Kothapally villages have 30 and 38 students respectively but no teacher. The villagers had appointed two volunteers in each of the schools at their own expense. Some of the students walk long distances for attending the schools.
Speaking to The Hindu, Krishna, a parent from Kothapally, said that most of the parents withdrew the admission of their children in the two schools and admitted them in a private school located at Gurrapu Tanda where they were forced to shell out Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 20,000 on each child’s education. Though the recent survey by officials say there were only 119 children who were out of school, the villagers said that the number was much more.
Lack of poor education has also been showing its impact on other social indicators. The sex ratio among 0-6 aged children was alarmingly low since there were only 834 girls for every 1,000 boys and only 31 per cent of women in Chandampet are literate. A teacher working in Chandampet, who does not want to be named, said that many teachers were reluctant to work in the mandal since there were no basic amenities. “We cannot even find a tea stall in Chandampet mandal headquarters or a hotel for having lunch. Some of the villages are located 50 km away from Chandampet.”
Talking about these issues, an activist, Kanchukatla Subhash, underlined the importance of providing basic amenities to rural areas quoting former President APJ Abdul Kalam. “Construction of quarters with all amenities to teachers and other government officials in the heart of mandal will certainly help address the issue to a great extent, he suggested. He also urged the government to study the possibility of either providing a residential school with quarters for teachers for every three to four nearby Grama Panchayats. He also opined that paying of incentives not less than Rs. 10,000 for teachers working in remote areas may also encourage many teachers to choose these places during the transfers.
