JAGTIAL (TELANGANA): At a time when as many as 4,000 government schools in Telangana are being closed down due to poor strength, the people of Potharam, a tiny village in Kathalapur mandal in Jagtial district, have decided to send their children only to government school.
The villagers feel that if they send their children to the English medium government school, which is in the village itself, the government would improve facilities in it and their children would get quality education free of cost. This would not only reduce financial burden on parents but also help them in strengthening government school.
Interestingly, the gram panchyat even passed a resolution to impose penalty of Rs 50,000 on those who want to send their children to private school. That means, if any parent wants to send his or her wards to private schools, they will have to pay Rs 50,000 fine to the gram panchayat for taking up developmental works.
The idea behind the resolution is to make villagers desist from such act and send their children to only government school. Till last year, all the children from the village used to study at private schools in Rudrangi, a nearby village. But, this year the village youth took the initiative and motivated parents to send their children only to the English medium government school in the village.
“This decision is the result of gram Sarpanch, ward members, village youth and women organisation’s campaign to strengthen the government school. It took over two years to convince the villagers to send their children to local government school instead of private schools situated in neighbouring villages,” K Ramulu, a local leader, said.
Govt school
At present, the government school has two permanent teachers including the headmaster. English medium was introduced in the school two years ago for Classes I to IV, and this made parents send their children to the school.