VIJAYAWADA: Special Chief Secretary of the State School Education Department B Rajasekhar has said education policies are being formulated in the State in accordance with the National Education Policy and they are being implemented with students as the central point. He made it clear that the merger of classes will not create trouble for students. The merger of classes will be done only after resolving all the issues, he said. Speaking in the Secretariat on Monday, he urged media persons not to mislead students, parents and the public on the merger of classes.
“It is a merger of classes, not a merger of schools. The merger of classes is being done to ensure proper utilisation of infrastructure and human resources and to lay a solid foundation for the students at the primary level,” he clarified. The School Education department has discussed the process with all the stakeholders and the policy has been approved by the Cabinet, Nearly 8,232 second-grade teachers will be promoted as school assistants. Besides, the number of headmaster posts will increase with the merger of classes," the Chief Secretary said.
The pre-nursery classes of Anganwadi children are being merged with classes one and two to form PP-1 and PP-2 schools. Meanwhile, the third to fifth class students are being integrated with high schools and they are being taught by subject teachers, he explained.
A total of 2,943 primary schools have been merged with 2,800 high schools located adjacent or within 250 metres in the academic year 2021-22. Similarly, in the academic year 2022-23, 620 Foundation Plus schools are being merged with pre-schools and 4,954 pre-high schools with High schools within a kilometre distance.
A total of 5,870 schools have been merged across the State, but the local legislators have raised problems related to 820 schools.Rajashekar said that district-wise committees formed with Joint Collector as Chairman, DEO as a convenor and ZP CEO, RDO as special officers were directed to inspect the complaints raised on the merger of classes.
“Steps will be taken to resolve those problems identified by the committee as soon as possible,” he said.
He said that the merger process was carried out after several meetings held with the representatives of all the teacher's unions, legislators and other stakeholders. Each high school will have nine subject teachers along with one HM and a PET. Every teacher will handle not more than 36 periods a week, Rajashekar elaborated. He said that the Nadu-Nedu programme was implemented in 15,715 schools in the last two-and-a-half years. Similarly, steps have been taken to build 32,000 additional classrooms in government schools across the State this year.