HYDERABAD: Running schools with the help of Vidya Volunteers has become imperative for the Education Department as recruitment of teachers through District Selection Committee (DSC) has not taken place since the formation of Telangana State despite repeated promises by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Keeping up with the trend, this year too 16,400 Vidya Volunteers (VV) are being recruited to plug in the teacher crunch in the State-run schools. Commissioner and Director of School Education issued directions for their recruitment on Wednesday.
However, with 23,000 vacant teacher posts, using VV as substitutes shouldn’t be seen as a solution to this problem, teachers remarked.
Unlike Telangana, neighbouring state, Andhra Pradesh has already conducted three DSCs. This is causing a heartburn among teachers in the State who have stepped up demand for recruitment and their other pending demands.
Even the Teacher Recruitment Test (TRT) conducted in 2016, has been in a limbo. The 8,792 selected candidates are yet to get their postings.
“This, on one hand, has left aspirants unsure of their future and on the other has led to the deterioration of quality of education being imparted in government schools,” said Chava Ravi, general Secretary Telangana State United Teachers Federation.
At present 4,587 government schools across the State are being run by a single teacher and nearly 2,600 schools have been shut down. Among the five southern states, after Andhra Pradesh which has 7,483 single teacher schools, Telangana has the second largest such schools.
In another circular issued on Monday, the District Education Officers (DEOs) have instructed the respective Mandal Education Officers (MEOs) that primary schools having less than 10 students, upper primary schools with less than 20 and high schools with below 30 students should be relocated to other schools and teachers in such schools should be relocated to needy schools.
“Enrolment in government schools is low because schools do not have teachers,” said E Raghunandan, State president, TTF. He said that their school has 17 teachers for over 600 students in the school.