'Badi Bata' makes debut with good response across Telangana

Hyderabad: The Badi Bata programme (enrolment programme) commenced in all government schools across Telangana on Friday. The objective of this programme is to identify all the eligible children and enroll them in the nearest government schools. Government teachers pointed out that this programme is a good initiative for strengthening government schools.

Apart from initiating this programme, teachers are also concerned about filling of vacant posts, developing the infrastructure of schools and due to SSC spot evaluation duty 20 to 30 percent of government teachers are unable to participate in the door-to-door enrollment programme, forcing the remaining teachers to visit door to door for enrollment.

Chava Ravi, Telangana State United Teachers' Federation (TSUTF), said, "Step of strengthening the strength of students in government schools is good but what about providing proper facilities. It will take time for improving the infrastructure of schools as the Mana Ooru-Mana Badi programme is been carried out phase-wise and is also a time taking project. It is necessary to first enroll teachers as there is crunch of teaching staff especially in the primary sections. Around 21,000 teachers post are vacant for the past several years. With the increasing strength of students it is also important to enroll teachers as teachers face tremendous pressure to accommodate huge strength. The State government should identify vacancies as per the latest strength in government schools and fill them through District Selection Committee."

V Krishna Moorty, headmaster of Government High School, Seethaphalmandi, said, "the State government has taken a good initiative by launching Badi Bata programme. On the first day we got a good response. But as few government teachers are busy in evaluation, remaining teachers along with the school headmasters are forced to visits door to door for enrolment that is giving them problem."

"This enrollment programme is for 12 days. On the first day of the campaign we received a good response. Many government schools lack proper sanitation. Our school lacks proper washrooms and have no sanitation workers. We are forced to stay in an untidy environment as the school is not been cleaned," said a government school teacher.