Greedy schools turn blind eye to falling standards

Hyderabad: Untrained teachers, lack of job security, underpaid salaries, non-compliance with statutory provisions are a few among the factors that are dogging the private schools in the State.

All these factors are affecting education standards in private schools where nearly 30 lakh children are studying. However, State School Education Department (SSED), the regulatory authority to oversee the compliance of these issues in the private schools, remained a mute spectator.

The SSED has already come under fire from the parents of the students studying in private schools. Now, it is the teachers working in the private schools training their guns against the authorities for widespread violations.

Speaking to The Hans India, the Telangana Private Teachers Forum (TPTF) state president Sheikh Shabbir Ali said that there are three lakh teachers working in private schools.

The District Education Officer (DEO) or the Mandal Education Officer (MEO) has to keep a check on the appointment of private school teachers. However, none of the schools involve them. More often than not, the managements of the schools take the files to the officials who sign them on dotted lines, he added. As per the existing GO No.1, the schools should earmark 50 per cent of the fee collected towards the salaries of the teachers.

This is, in addition to meeting the payments towards the statutory compliances like the contribution towards Provident Fund and Employees State Insurance (ESI). But, the appointments are made at the whims and fancies of the managements. Untrained teachers with little or no experience in teaching are appointed.

“In some schools, the salary of teachers is as low as Rs 12,000. The salaries are paid in cash or on voucher payments and no appointment letters are issued to the teachers. So, they could be removed any time by the school managements,” he added. All this has been adversely affecting the education standards and functioning of the private schools.

"In the absence of proper regulation and monitoring, the schools continue to flout norms to make money giving a go-by to rules framed with an intention to provide quality education to students, he said. It was only after much persuasion some corporate schools like Narayana, Chaitanya, Gowtham Model School, Bhashyam and a few others have agreed to pay salaries through banks and to contribute towards PF and ESI.

But, there is no change in case of the majority of schools in the State, Shabbir Ali said. Recently, the Centre had notified that only trained teachers should teach in schools from the academic year of 2019-20. If any school opting to recruit untrained teachers paying less salary will be left with no option but to close, he said.