VIJAYAWADA: There are only 11 teachers at the Damarla Ramakantha Rao Pragada Kotaiah Municipal High School in Mangalagiri, Guntur district, for the past seven years, despite all the perks it has to offer. It is one of the only two government English-medium schools in Mangalagiri and has been reporting top SSC pass percentages over the past few years. As a result, parents prefer to enrol their children to the school, keeping aside their concerns that it has only 11 teachers for the past seven years.
As per the Right to Education Act, 2009, the teacher-to-student ratio for secondary schools should be 1:27, however, the ratio in the Mangalagiri high school stands at 1:114. The school has 20 sections against the stipulated 28, forcing teachers to adjust the students in the available sections for taking classes.
Currently, the school has 20 classrooms and needs another 10 classrooms. The government had allocated 13 more classrooms to the school, under Nadu-Nedu phase-2, but due to lack of sufficient space, construction for only nine classrooms has begun.
In the academic year 2021-22, MLA Alla Rama Krishna Reddy took the initiative to appoint 15 vidya volunteers and reportedly paid them Rs 8,000 each from his pocket for nearly two months. Later, the municipal corporation began paying them but not for too long.
AP Municipal Teachers Federation State President S Rama Krishna said, “The teachers at the high school were managing all the sections with the help of four additional outsourced teachers. Vidya volunteers were pulled out of offering services after the municipal schools were handed over to the School Education Department.”
It may be noted that there are 335 municipal high schools in the State and 2,400 vacant teacher posts. Krishna pointed out that there is a shortage of teachers at several schools in the State, adding that the task to appoint teachers is generally the responsibility of the School Education Department, irrespective of whether the institutes are under the ambit of the municipal administration or school education department.
Responding, Commissioner for School Education S Suresh Kumar said the municipal schools were handed over to the department on June 24, adding they would streamline them as soon as possible.
“It could take another two to three months to resolve all the problems related to municipal schools as the municipal administration has not yet handed over all the particulars of the number of teachers and other details,” the CSE stated.