WARANGAL: Even as reports of over 4,000 government schools with less strength being shut down in the state is doing the rounds, deputy chief minister (education) Kadiyam Srihari on Sunday announced that the government has no intention of shutting down any government school in the state.
“We are seriously considering strengthening government schools in the state. So where is the question of shutting them down,” he said. Speaking at the Telangana State United Teachers’ Association (TSUTA) meeting on Sunday, the deputy chief minister said the state government believes in providing only quality education to children studying in government schools. Hence, the government is striving hard to strengthen government schools.
“Of the 420 zero enrolment primary schools, we have converted 270 schools into English medium schools. This has improved the enrolment rate in those schools,” he said.
According to him, the state government is taking all possible measures to improve the quality of education in state-run schools. He claimed that due to the measures taken by the state government about 50,000 students studying in private schools have joined government schools across the state in last one year.
Stressing the need for government school teachers taking their job seriously, he said the public opinion of government teachers is poor and due to which parents have lost confidence on government schools.
“I request teachers to stop involving in politics, side business and concentrate on teaching. If they concentrate only on teaching the quality of education in government schools would automatically improve. These days, there are many teachers who hardly attend schools or go for refresher courses. Teachers should prepare themselves so that they could give best knowledge to students,” he said.
Coming down heavily on Centre, Srihari alleged that the Centre was not releasing adequate funds for implementing educational programmes in the state.
“We sent a proposal of over 2,000 crore to the Centre for implementing various Central programmes related to education, but the Centre wrote us back saying it could sanction only Rs 440 crore. The NDA government had even scraped Model school programme. Despite this the state government is continuing all the programmes with its own funds,” he said.