Telangana State education sector seeks budget balm

Hyderabad: Drastic reduction in the budgetary support and large number of vacancies from primary to university level have been playing havoc with the education sector in the State, say the representatives of the teachers' associations.

According to E E Raghunandhan of the Progressive Teachers Federation (PTF), the rulers in the united AP had neglected the education sector in Telangana.

However, drastic fall in the budgetary support to the education sector since the formation of the State has further hit the education sector in Telangana.

Further, the State government did not focus on improving the literacy rate. In turn, the State has remained second from the bottom with 66.46 literacy rate, which is below 7.58 per cent of the national average.

Though the current government has promised KG to PG free education it washed of hands of establishing 900 Gurukul Schools, in which, only three lakh children are studying out of 65 lakh school-going children in the State.

Similarly, the literacy rates in the tribal areas registered only 49.5 per cent. Against this backdrop, the education sector will continue to be in doldrums unless the State government allocates a minimum of 20 per cent allocation to the education.

According to A Nagaiah of Telangana Vidyavantula Vedika (TVV) the issues which needed immediate attention are filling existing vacancies.

He said the State has a total of 404 Government Junior Colleges, 131 Government Degree Colleges and 11 universities. The total number of existing vacancies in all the institutions are about 10,000.

Further, he said the education sector in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh have got a minimum of 14 per cent allocation in the budget till the financial year of 2013-14.

But, the same has come down to 10.8 per cent in 2014-15, to 9.69 per cent in 2015-16, and by the financial year of 2019-20, the total allocation to the education sector in Telangana has come down to 6.76.

In turn, this has pushed the State education sector into doldrums pointed out PTF president K Ramana. They said that the school, Gurukul, technical, higher education sectors, including the intermediate and university education, require Rs 34,021.14 crore to bring the education sector on to the tracks.

That apart, the government should focus on improving the basic amenities in the schools, filling up existing vacancies and appointing additional teachers, starting new schools, increase in the salaries, introducing additional courses in the universities, making pre-primary as part of the primary school education, implementing common school system were among the other measures needed to improve the standards in the State education sector.