Telangana: Pressure on government for resumption of all classes

Hyderabad: Are schoolchildren consumable goods for the revival of private school sector in Telangana? If the goings-on are any indication, pressure is mounting from the school managements and teachers unions on the State government for physical reopening of schools for all classes right from primary level.

Private school managements argue that they are not able to pay rent for buildings and other overheads. Also, they have to clear bank EMIs, current bills and a host of other expenditure dues pending since the lockdown. Unless children physically attend schools, the managements feel that they cannot mount pressure on parents to pay fee.

That apart, the schools argue that unless there is a full physical reopening of all classes they cannot pay salaries to teachers. However, the Telangana Private School Teachers' Forum (TPSTF) president Shabbir Ali calls the claims of private school managements a ploy to collect full academic year's fee from parents.He said the physical reopening of school for Classes IX and X started from February 1. However, private schools had already collected full year's fee from parents. On the other hand, they did not take back teachers who were removed earlier. Also, some teachers were called back and they were engaged for one or two periods by paying an hourly remuneration of Rs 250-300. This way, a teacher can earn a maximum of Rs 7,500 a month, he added.

Shabbir Ali demands that the State government hold a meeting with both parents and school managements for percentage cut in collection of school fee for academic years 2002-21.

Hyderabad School Parents Association (HSPA) member Ramanjit Singh said the State government has smartly lobbed the ball into the court of parents. It accepted the physical reopening of schools for Classes IX and X. However, it put a clause that students can attend classes only with permission of parents. In turn, the schools are telling parents to pay full fee since they have physically reopened schools. However, "I will not send my child to school at the fag-end of the academic year. Nothing is going to happen, if a child of primary classes does not go to school for a year," he said.