Does school education go in systematic way?

RSD- Sircilla news: After the formation of Telangana state, as a social responsibility, educated people, intellectuals and teacher unions submitted proposals to the government on the day suggesting how the education system should be in the state of Telangana. Only Gurukula education system has been promoted. As a result, the school education that was already going on was neglected. If we look at the official statistics of the government, we can see shocking facts. 13,374 schools have less than 50 children (PS, UPS, HS all together), 5,821 schools have only one teacher, 1213 schools have zero schools (no children). The number of zero schools is increasing every year. We understand that public schools are becoming less popular. The reasons for this situation in the school education sector in the state of Telangana has fallen into disrepair, promoting only gurukula and neglecting other schools, lack of infrastructure, lack of teachers, lack of supervision, implementation of schemes that do not give results, parents’ perception of government schools, and not allocating adequate budget to schools.  There are 26074 Mandal Parishad, Zilla Parishad Schools, 194 Model Schools, 475 Kasturiba Gandhi Girls Vidyalayas, 31 Urban Residential Schools, 51 Central Schools, 161 Madrasas, 11637 Private Schools, 1002 Welfare Gurukuls in the state. About 60,77,073 students are studying from 1st to 10th class in all these. There are 30,93,368 (50.90%) in government schools and 29,83,705(49.09%) in private schools.

In the government schools of Telangana state, where there are teachers, there are no students. In the schools where there are students, there are difficulties in providing quality education to the students. The education department will temporarily meet the shortage of teachers by making the mandals in the districts a unit and adjusting the teachers. Recruiting education volunteers in schools where teachers are not available. The permanent solution is to rationalize the recruitment of teachers. Back in the day, teachers used to live in the area where they worked and interacted with the people. Participating in their hardships and pleasures, they became the designers of many social movements. Along with the people, the teachers were also in the front line and fought for the people. That is why teachers were seen as great people by the people. It is no exaggeration to say that the generation of teachers used to influence politics as well. Compared to the past, it can be said that the social consciousness among today’s teachers has decreased. Their participation in public movements has decreased. Instead of a progressive dynamic ideology, corporatization, commercialization, privatization, self-consciousness prevailed in the education sector as well as among the teachers. The bond between teachers and people has decreased. Compared to the past, people’s love and respect for today’s teachers has decreased. The responsibility is on the teachers of today’s generation to revive them.

Providing in-service trainings to the teachers every year to improve their teaching skills and continuous monitoring with the supervising authorities can achieve good results. Appointing those who have no teaching experience as supervising officers is a real risk of fraud. Only those with teaching experience should be appointed as district and mandal level supervisory officers. Understanding the field conditions and the problems of student teachers is possible only with officers who have teaching experience. In the state budget of Telangana, 6.24% funds have been allocated for the education sector, this time ₹21389 (7.75%) crores have been allocated. Compared to last year, 1.51% more funds have been allocated to the education sector this time. It is good to allocate funds for Telangana public schools to meet international standards for each mandal, but it is currently ongoing. Efforts should be made to provide infrastructural facilities to the schools. There is a need to set up an education commission for the protection of public education. Among the top 20 states in the country, Telangana has allocated the lowest 7.75% of its budget to the education sector. Delhi 21.1%, Karnataka 11%, Andhra Pradesh (12.6%), Kerala (14%), Tamil Nadu (14.1%) states have allocated the highest amount of funds for the development of educational institutions for the preservation of public educational institutions. Telangana state educational allocations are very less compared to those states. There is a need to make huge budgetary allocations for the education sector in the coming days.

In the current situation, there is a need to set up an education commission at the state level to protect public education. It is the responsibility of the government to set up an education commission with professors, academics, intellectuals, high officials and experienced teachers and strengthen the education sector with their advice and suggestions to save the school education from crisis. Allocating more funds to the education sector in the budget, creating infrastructure, teacher training, teacher appointments, supervision, Steps should be taken to use government textbooks in schools, let’s hope that the government will pay special attention to the regulation of fees in private schools and save the school education sector which has lost its way. A tribute to Government School education reforms by Pakala Shankar Goud, Educator: 9848377734.