Telangana: Is Mana Ooru Mana Badi programme student-centric?

Hyderabad: Many government and private teachers along with parents have raised their concern on whether the Mana Ooru Mana Badi programme is only to improve infrastructure in government schools across Telanganaor it is also student-centric.

The New National Education Policy(NEP) 2022 is based on four pillars which are Access, Equity, Quality, and Accountability and it is implemented for the overall development of the students in all thespheres. Concerns have been raised among teachers and parents that many government schools lack digital classrooms, playgrounds and students are deprived of extracurricular activities. Chava Ravi, general secretary, Telangana State United Teachers' Federation (TSUTF) said, "The main criteria of new education policy is to ensure that education is not just limited to the classroom walls but also to be linked to the outside world so that students can explore and learn.

Under the policy, many additional things are been implemented including pre-primary holistic education to all the schools and also an elective subject National Cadet Corps (NCC) will be added.But as the State government is only thinking to improve the infrastructure in government school under Mana Ooru Mana Badi programme what about implementing additional subject and also about the library and digital classroom, as this is a basic need in schools. Developing infrastructure is not just enough."

Renuka, a private school teacher, said "apart from basic infrastructure in government schools what about the other developments?According to NEP every school should have a laboratory, computer rooms, playgrounds and extracurricular activities. Another main concern is that sufficient teaching staff should also be there but government schools lack teaching staff. Before improving infrastructure, teachers should be appointed.

Asif Hussain Sohail, president of Telangana Parents Association for Child Rights and Safety said NPE focuses on the holistic growth of students and also aims at enhancing India's educational system. Whereas Mana Ooru Mana Badi programme is to improve the infrastructure but what about implementing elective subjects. Nowadays digital education is important but our education department is not bothered about implementing these things. Also under NEP, NCC is added as an elective subject but in Telangana, many schools do not have this subject. We have requested the Education department to add NCC as an elective subject."