Move to merge schools flayed

The Telangana Teachers Federation (TTF) has alleged that the government was mulling to merge the upper primary schools in nearby high schools to reduce the primary schools.

In a statement here, president of TTF E. Raghunandan said that this would severly effect the rural children, particularly girls who will not travel to long distances to high schools. He said the dropouts would increase further severely affecting the poor children.

The rationalisation proposal was also made in the combined Andhra Pradesh when N. Chandrababu Naidu and Y.S. Rajashekar Reddy were the chief ministers but were withdrawn after opposition from all teachers unions and parents, he said. Mr. Raghunandan demanded that the proposal be withdrawn immediately and fill up the vacancies.

He alleged that the government wants to close down 4,000 schools in the guise of rationalisation and the merger is an effort in that direction.