Hyderabad: Open school students plea for promotion

Hyderabad: Close on the heels of Telangana State government promoting regular students without holding examinations this year, the open schools are also demanding a similar gesture for their students arguing that both the students identically suffered due to lockdown.

Pushing the same demand before the government, a delegation of representatives from open schools, registered with Telangana Open School Society (TOSS), Nampally, made a representation to Director TOSS on Saturday seeking promotion of students pursuing 10th class and inter through open system.

"There are 30,000 students in GHMC limits who have registered themselves with the TOSS this year. They were confused after the regular students were promoted by the government. This is unfair for open school students who faced similar problems as that of regular ones due to lockdown," argued Ankam Srikanth, Secretary Telangana Open School Federeation (TOSF).

"Taking into consideration the plight of the poor students, the government should make a similar announcement promoting all the SSC and INTER students registered under TOSS on the basis of "Tutor Assignment Marks" they got through attending Personal Contact Program (PCP) classes," he contended.

"Coronavirus lockdown has affected everyone in the society irrespective of any class and standard. Majority of students choose open schools so that they can pursue education along with jobs. However, they were disheartened with the governments' announcement promoting only regular students turning a complete blind eye towards their plight," said CH Vachaspathi, Treasurer (TOSF).

"There is no logic in saying that only regular students will be affected by coronavirus. The students of open school are no way less vulnerable to a highly contagious risk," he added.

"It is against this background, we have made a representation to Education Minister P Sabitha Indira Reddy and the Director TOSS, Venkateshwarlu on Saturday day seeking an early resolution of the issue in the larger interest of the TOSS students in the state." said A Srikanth.