Crime Today News
Hyderabad: People’s organisations and political parties have come together to exert pressure on the Congress government to implement its 2023 election assurance of allocating 15% of this year’s budget to education. Though the organisations feel that it is still not enough to improve the quality of public education in government schools, they feel it could be at least something to begin with.
Civil society organisations and the left parties joined forces on Saturday, March 15, to launch a democratic struggle to save the education system in Telangana from serious crises.
During a meeting held at Basheerbagh Press Club with their sole demand of 15% on school education, the leaders of various organisations urged the state government to at least now, halt the implementation of schemes like Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak, and use those funds for educating the children instead.
Addressing the gathering of NGOs and some concerned parents, child rights activist Varsha Bhargavi stated that Rs 8,335 crore has been spent on Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak schemes in the last three years.
She claimed that 3,90,000 girls have been deprived of further education and have been pushed into marriage due to these schemes since 2018.
“Why can’t we transfer those funds to educate the children,” she asked, also observing that post-covid, child trafficking and child labour have been flourishing, with the very existence and identity of innumerable children becoming a big question.
The group of young girls with the name “Telangana Aadapillala Samaanathva Samakhya,” who have been pressing for the demand to end those two schemes through various campaigns in the rural areas, were also present at the event.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Abbas, who raised the issue of students’ suicides in private educational institutions, noted that 13,000 children have died by suicide in those institutions since 2014.
He said that there out of 18,000 government primary schools in the state, around 1,800 schools have zero enrollment, the reason why they could be shut down, also pointing out that there were also 4,500 primary schools with less than 10 children enrolled, which could meet a similar fate.
“While the national education policy is trying to put our public education system in the hands of bigg corporates in the name of social responsibility, our rulers seem to be shrugging education as the responsibility of their shoulders,” he opined.
Y Ashok Kumar, who has served 36 years as a teacher and headmaster, who also came third in the recently held Teachers’ MLC elections, said that there were more than 60 lakh children enrolled in 30,000 government schools across the state.
Even if the state government has managed to enroll around 7 lakh of those children in the Gurukuls, he felt that it was still not enough.
Talking about the Young India integrated residential schools being planned to be established by the state government, he wondered what would happen to the existing government schools lying neglected in the villages.
“We need the schools in our villages to be transformed into good schools. Budget is required not only for the integrated residential schools, but also for these neglected schools,” he demanded.
Venkat Reddy, national convener of MV Foundation, pointed out that in the last 25 years, there was no new government school built in the twin-cities, though rural to urban migration has witnessed a boom during these years.
Talking about migration from the villages, Veeranna, an activist from Jogulamba Gadwal district, questioned why the district couldn’t be given a special education package as per the Right to Education Act, while mandals like Ghattu and KT Doddi have been among the worst in terms of literacy and students’ drop-out rate.
He stated that if necessitated, the people of Gadwal wouldn’t hesitate in taking out a major rally to press the demand for a special package for one of the most-backward districts in the state.
Talking about migration, Anuradha, a representative of Rainbow Homes, said that only 2.8% of the Union budget was being allocated for school education, and out of that, hardly 0.5% was for child care.
“Has there been any survey done of the number of homeless people,” she asked, underlining that the children in the slums, mostly those having no parental supervision, were still finding it difficult to receive quality education.
The collective of NGOs stated that as per the UDISE data, out of the total 29.83 lakh children under the age group of 1 and 5, only 10.54 lakh were enrolled in government primary schools.
“Because of the successive state governments not taking any steps to allocate funds for education , 81% of children in Hyderabad, 85% in Medchal Malkajgiri district, and 70% students in Rangareddy districts, are studying in private educational institutions,” Venkat Reddy noted.
He said that if the state government was to spend 15% of budget on education, especially school education, it would require funds amounting to around Rs 45,000 crore in this year’s budget.
Observing that the state government announcing the allocation of Rs 11,500 crore for construction of 55 integrated residential schools in every mandal headquarters with each costing Rs 200 crore to build, the collective stated that out of Rs 17,942 crore allocated for school education in 2024-25, Rs 15,000 crore had been spent on the payment of salaries for teaching and non-teaching staff alone.
The speakers who came from organisations including but not limited to Child Rights Protection Forum (CRPF), Dalit Bahujan Front (DBF), Mothers’ Association, Social Democratic Forum (SDF), Telangana People’s Joint Action Committee (TPJAC), CPM, CPIML (New Democracy) among others, demanded the state government to allocate at least 20 to 30% on school, collegiate and university education in the upcoming budget.
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