Education Neglect In Old City

Charminar: For about 20 years now, the conditions of government schools in the Old City has been diminishing by the year. Institutions lack not only basic amenities, but buildings are dilatated and teachers’ posts are vacant. Most of the schools are running in private buildings supported by charitable funds from locals. The one’s that do have buildings lack amenities like tables, benches, toilets and other necessary infrastructure.

While literacy and education are the key factors to break the shackles of poverty and oppression that is rampant in the Old City, the State machinery is unable to deliver the goods here.

Nothing has changed for the people even in the past decade. While on one hand, the New City kept growing under ‘IT revolution’, its age-old sister, Old City withered under neglect from the government. It is not that the government has not sanctioned schools to Old City.

In fact, this part of town has more number of government schools than the New City has and so is the number of school children. Despite the said fact, education is in bad shape.

Many schools are running understaffed and parents are forced to send their wards to private institutions. Even as Quli Qutub Shah Urban Development Authority (QQSUDA) cries for funds, it has all but lost its influence in ensuring maintenance of schools in the area.

Parents and children have been demanding for the betterment of the infrastructure in government run schools for years now. Except a few institutions, most of the schools failed to grab the attention of government for up-gradation.

Almost every prominent locality in the Old City has a government primary or high school and each one is in a bad shape. Chatrinaka, Yaqut Pura, Eidi Bazar, Moghulpura, Santoshnagar, Phisalbanda, Chandrayangutta, Kala Pathar, Misri Ganj and other areas have government schools are prominent places where children are sent to government schools.

According to Ifteqar from Nawab Saheb Kunta. there were two schools in one building at MCH Colony in the area. He said that three classes are run in only one room. “The school lacks basic amenities; drinking water, toilets and proper benches are absent, and students have to suffer. This cannot attract parents here for their children to be enrolled,” he rued.

The said school in Nawab Saheb Kunta was built in 2014 with an amount of Rs 76.75 lakhs under Sarva Sikhsha Ahbiyan. The first floor of this school is left unused and only the ground floor is in use. According to locals, most of the government schools in the area were running in the same way.

The Muslim community that forms the majority in the Old City has been facing problems of poverty, illiteracy, and high drop-out rates for quite a while. The children here are in no position to progress on any front given the deplorable condition of schools. While every citizen is aiming and dreaming for a better tomorrow, the children in this part of town are steeped in backwardness with every passing year.

By Mohammed Younus