HYDERABAD: Students and teachers have raised serious concerns over the functioning of several Telangana residential schools, including those under the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TGSWREIS), Telangana Tribal Welfare Residential Educational Society (TTWREIS), Telangana Minorities Residential Educational Institutions Society (TMREIS), and Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS), which are operating without wardens and regular subject teachers.
Currently, more than 1,000 teacher posts remain vacant across 1,023 residential institutions.
Over 600 schools are also functioning from rented buildings, adding to the infrastructure crisis. Teachers noted that revised timings—8:00 am to 4:30 pm instead of the earlier 9:00 am to 4:00 pm—leave students without proper breaks. The absence of wardens has further burdened teachers, who are forced to take up supervisory duties. Monitoring, they added, remains weak as most schools are located in remote areas.
Speaking to TNIE, Mahesh, a teacher at TMREIS Hyderabad, said, “We are tired of requesting the department to merge all Telangana Residential Schools under a single directorate so that these issues can be addressed. In TMREIS, as per GO No. 16 issued last year, schools begin at 8:00 am, but the timetable is impractical. Dinner is served between 6:00 and 7:00 pm, which is too early, and students are left without a proper break.”
Highlighting the absence of wardens, Livin Kumar, a teacher at a BC Welfare school in Khammam, said, “We don’t know why the government is not appointing wardens. More than 1,000 wardens are required across Telangana’s residential schools. Teachers are forced to handle both teaching and non-teaching duties. Without wardens and supervisors, schools suffer from poor maintenance, leading to an increase in food poisoning and snakebite cases.”
Another TGSWREIS teacher added, “The last recruitment was held in 2023, but due to work pressure, many have left their jobs. This has left numerous subject-teacher posts vacant, especially for higher classes, forcing existing staff to take extra classes.”
Attempts by TNIE to obtain responses from senior officials of Telangana Residential Societies were met with silence.