Former MLC Vitapu Balasubrahmanyam on October 14 (Saturday) raised serious concern over what he called declining enrolment in government schools due to implementation of policies like ‘adjustment’ or ‘rationalisation’ of teachers and merger or closure of schools and parents losing trust in the government school education system.
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Speaking at a meeting on “School Education Sector-Current Status”, organised by Praja Vikasa Vedika, Mr. Balasubrahmanyam said the government established schools without proper planning, just to benefit from the Centrally-sponsored programmes and to acquire funds from the World Bank, and such institutions today had only 20-30 students, and one or two teachers. “Leave alone competing with private institutions, these single-teacher schools are not in a position to impart even the basic education to children,” he said.
The former MLC alleged that the entire corporate education system in the State was dominated mainly by two managements, who gradually gained political power and started influencing key decisions in the education sector.
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Telugu medium
He found fault with the government for doing away with Telugu as the medium of instruction in State-run schools and demanded that the mother tongue be made the medium of instruction in primary schools. He said privatisation of education and implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 had led to debilitation of the primary education sector in the State.
The former MLA urged democratic forces to unite and oppose the policies that had been resulting in the deterioration of the education sector.
Vacant posts
Speaking on the status of the higher education sector, MLC K.S. Lakshmana Rao said teaching, research and expansion were the three key factors needed for development of this sector. But the existing situation in the State was anything close to this, he said, informing that the number of universities in the State had gone up from 450 in 1990 to 950 in 2020. Out of these, 51 % were private or deemed universities. There were more than 4,000 vacant posts of Professors, Associate and Assistant Professors as there was no recruitment made in the last 15 years, he said.
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Political interference
Alleging political interference, he said appointment of Vice-Chancellors of universities and executive councils were being done under ‘political influence’.
Andhra Pradesh Vidya Parirakshana Committee convener Ramesh Patnaik accused the State government of adopting policies that were detrimental to the interests of the State.
Retired Professor from Central University, Hyderabad, K. Chinnayya Suri said people saw private institutions as a substitute for government schools and colleges due to their falling standards.
A. Jagannadha Rao of Social Sciences Trust, former MLC Kathi Narsimha Reddy, Guntupalli Krishna Rao and others also spoke.