HYDERABAD: The 177 Model Schools, which cater to around 90,000 students in rural areas of the state, are fighting a survival battle.
The central government’s decision to cut off its financial support and the state government’s reluctance to shoulder the responsibility have left over 3,000 staffers of these schools in a lurch.
After the Centre had made it clear that it would not extend any helping hand, the state government, rather shockingly, allocated a meagre Rs 75 lakh for the schools for the financial year 2015-16.
This has left students and teachers guessing whether the Model School system would last any longer as the paltry sum earmarked for the purpose would hardly suffice to pay salaries to the staff.
This apart, the situation of 125 new sanctioned schools, under the programme, supposed to begin operations from the ensuing academic year (2015-16) is far from becoming a reality.
It may be recalled that the Union government has, in its recent budget, decided to delink the support to the Model Schools and suggested to state governments to fend for themselves the in wake of increase in the revenue of states through the hike proposed by the Centre in tax devolution.
With no support from both central and state governments, contract teachers working in these schools are a worried lot and complain that they have not received salaries for the last two to four months.