Govt mulls merger of 2,115 municipal schools under school Education department

Guntur: The government is contemplating the merger of 2,115 municipal schools including 335 high schools, 1625 elementary schools and 155 upper primary schools in the School Education department very soon. The officials have already begun the exercise for this purpose.

According to sources in the government, the officials opine that the Municipal Administration Department is not furnishing the information relating to Amma-Vodi, Jagananna Gorumudda and Nadu-Nedu within the stipulation time to the School Education department. They also feel that the municipal commissioners have no awareness on school education and they are not qualified to monitor the schools.

The DEOs and the RJDS will supervise better than the municipal commissioners. They recommended to the government to merge all municipal schools in the State in the School Education department for better management and monitoring. Moreover, the Municipal Administration Department has no commissionerate like the School Education department to monitor schools.

However, the teachers working in the municipal schools are opposing the proposal of the government. They say that if this proposal is translated into action, they will lose their seniority and they will not get promotions. At present, they are getting transfers within the municipality or the municipal corporation. If municipal schools are merged in the School Education department, they will get transfers like teachers working in the Zilla Parishad. Hence, they are vehemently opposing it.

Municipal Teachers Federation State president S Rama Krishna said, "Services of the 14,000 municipal teachers will be merged with the services of 60,000 ZP teachers in the State. As a result, the municipal teachers will become juniors. They will not get promotions. The officials have briefed Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy about it."

He further said, "Instead of merging the municipal schools in the School Education department, it is better to set up a separate commissionerate on the lines of School Education Department for better monitoring.

We have no objection. We are ready to give whatever information the MEOs and the DEO want and we will give within the stipulated time. We are opposing handing over the valuable assets of the municipal schools to the government," Ramakrishna said.

"If the government takes a unilateral decision and merges municipal schools in the School Education Department, we will approach the court for justice," he said.