Telangana: No answers to why schools reopened

Hyderabad: Were schools in Telangana reopened under political pressure? This is the general opinion being expressed by many parents. Such doubts are being raised since senior officials of the Education department on Monday sought to distance themselves with the decision to reopen schools for Class VI to VIII when parents questioned them.

Speaking to The Hans India, a senior State Education Department official said that the entire department was of the strong opinion that schools for these classes should not be reopened and the students could be promoted to the next class. They were of the opinion that since the academic year had come to an end, it would be better if the students were promoted. Another reason for such feeling among the officials was because they felt that if schools were reopened at this stage, the corporate and private schools would fleece the parents.

"GO No.46 was only up to the end of the current academic year. I fear what the private schools would do to parents in the days to come," said a top official fromthe State Education.

According to the sources, this was for the first time that officials are putting up their best face for public consumption in the media and for their political bosses. "In fact, they are feeling guilty of doing something wrong on the issue of reopening of schools. The parents feel that this was more of a political decision which was causing great financial problems for them," said the source.

Another issue that has come to light is that the School Education Department could not send its report seeking disaffiliation of 11 CBSE schools which were found to have been resorting to fleecing of parents in terms of payment of fees. The reason for not being able to send the report to CBSE, sources said was political pressure.