Private school dominance continues in Telangana

Hyderabad: The increasing dominance of private schooling and the uneven distribution of students and teachers among the government and private schools present a mixed picture of the growing burden of expenditure on education on parents.

According to the sources in the State Education Department, the National Family Health Survey 2020-21 (NFHS-5) showed significant improvement on several indicators, including education, concerning the multi-dimensional poverty in the State. Particularly, the improvement among the rural poor was more than the urban poor in Telangana.

However, six districts of the State, including, Kumaran Bheem Asifabad, (16.59 per cent), Jogulamba Gadwal, Adilabad, Vikarabad, Kamareddy, and Mahabubnagar show the highest percentage of multi-dimensional poor, ranging from 10.27 per cent to 16. 59 per cent. Similarly, in five districts of the State, Hyderabad, Karimnagar, Janagaon, Hanumakonda and Peddapalli, multi-dimensional poverty of people is less hovering between 2.5 per cent to 2.91 per cent.

However, the number of private schools mushrooming in more or less poverty districts of the State shows more or less the same pattern, presenting that the expenditure of parents on the education of their children at the school level in rural and urban is at variance. But, the dominance of private education remains the main factor in both the rural and urban spaces.

The School Education Dash Board of Telangana by the Department of School Education and Literacy of the Union Ministry of Education shows the uneven distribution of the number of schools, teachers, and students studying in government and private schools.

The main factors for the growing private education dominance vis a vis government education, show that the Telangana State has shown an increase in the share of expenditure on education from 1.4 per cent from 2014-15 to 1.9 per cent in 2016-17, but, registering a decline subsequently.

It was only in the last year that the State initiated increasing the expenditure under the Mana Ooru-Mana Badi scheme to improve the school infrastructure. Yet, while the government schools continue to face the problem of dropouts, there is an increase in the footfalls for the private schools.