Enrolment of primary and high school students has soared over the past few months in government schools in Hyderabad as private schools have either shut shop or have become unaffordable.
Inside the Nandi Muslai Guda Government Primary School, there is no space to walk in the corridors as one batch of students run out and another batch of students amble in.
Facilitating the rise in enrolment is the State government policy of not demanding transfer certificate from students up to Class VIII. Earlier, schools would insist on TC and the private schools demanded full payment of fee before issuing the certificate.
“We have 480 students. Last year we had 327. We are running the school in two batches in three languages,” said Mohammed Laik Ali Khan, the head master of the school. This 46% rise in enrolment in this one school is replicated in different forms in other government schools in the city. Concurrent with the rise in enrolment of students in government schools is the decline in the numbers in private schools. Hyderabad had 2,083 private schools in 19-20. The number of private schools now is 1,886 a decline of 9.4%.
Outside the classroom of Hyderguda Government School, Rajeshwari has enrolled her two children Venkat Kiran and Vasavi in Class I and Class IV. “They were studying in New Brilliant School. After the lockdown was lifted, the school wanted us to pay last year as well as this year’s fee. My son was in UKG and didn’t care about the online classes. The discovery of this school has come as a blessing,” says Rajeswari as her son and daughter walk around the school watching students scream their lessons.
Hyderabad has about 377 government schools spread across the city with 8,15,910 students on its rolls. The quality ranges from small four class room establishments in Upparpally to multi-storied building complexes in NM Guda and Begumpet.
“We have 158 students on the rolls in our school. Most of the admissions this year are students who dropped out of private schools. Students have to produce a birth certificate and we enrol them,” informs C. Suhasini, headmaster of the Hyderguda school as she counsels a parent about Dasara vacation and the issue of new textbooks for children.
