Ongole: High Schools Plus prove to be a bane

Ongole : The decision of the officials to immediately launch at least one junior college for girls in each mandal appeared have to cost dearly for students. The recent junior Intermediate results raise questions on the commitment of the government to implement the policy in true spirit. The parents of the students at these High Schools Plus (with Intermediate), are rethinking on the continuation of their children in them.

Inspired by the National Educational Policy 2020, the state government decided to upgrade the existing Model Schools, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, social welfare schools, zilla parishad and municipal high schools into junior colleges. To implement the decision at the ground level immediately from 2022-23, the officials selected 292 schools from villages in the state and ordered 1,752 existing qualified school assistants to teach the Intermediate subjects. These students were provided with orientation training in November 2022.

Meanwhile, the 292 headmasters are ordered to bring students to their High Schools Plus, explaining to the parents the importance of education to girls. The headmasters promised the parents that their children need not go to other places but can come to the same old school for the Intermediate after completing SSC. A headmaster of a High School Plus in Bapatla mandal said that by the time the admissions were started and the orientation of the teachers was completed, they were almost into December 2022. He said that though some of the teachers tried to take extra classes, they were unable to explain the concepts and the students didn't understand them.

In the erstwhile Prakasam district, the government upgraded 19 high schools to High Schools Plus for Girls for 2022-23. In six of them, there were no admissions but 188 girls joined in the remaining 13 schools. Only 17 students passed out of these 188 students, about 9.04 per cent, in the first year.

Father of a girl who passed the exam from the western area of the Prakasam district said that the headmaster assured them that the government will appoint qualified junior lecturers and complete the syllabus in time, but there was no qualified staff.

He said that he is not satisfied with the meagre marks his daughter achieved in the first year, and wants to join her in a college in Giddalur for the second year. His daughter said that the parents of her friends, who failed in the first year, are not willing to send them to college again.

Regional inspection officer (RIO) for the Board of Intermediate Education, Simon Victor, said that on orders of the district collector, they are conducting a meeting with the headmasters and principals of the High Schools Plus for Girls on Saturday.

He said that the collector wants the students to be provided with important questions and special classes from subject experts to help them clear backlogs in the advanced supplementary exams in June 2023.