Unable to put up with an unattainable financial burden emerged out of COVID-19 lockdown, the representatives of Budget schools in the state urged the government to take over the institutions along with the staff and run them under its own supervision.
In a letter to Chief Minister K.Chandrashekhar Rao, the Telangana Recognized School Managements Association (TRSMA) – the body that represents budget schools in the state has urged the CM to take over the budget schools and run them under its own supervision by paying salaries to staff on par with other government employees.
“Private schools are rendering yeoman service in promoting education in the state with tuition fees that ranging from Rs.5000/- to Rs.40,000/- per annum thereby fulfilling educational needs of lower and middle-class families of Rural, semi Urban and Urban areas. Thus, they are providing education to over 50 percent of the children in the state,” said Y. Shekhar Rao, President Telangana Recognized School Managements Association (TRSMA).
The private schools, he said, pushed into doll drums with the imposition of lockdown in the state and never came out of the crisis since then. This situation further deteriorated when the government promoted the students from 1st to 9th while passing the pupils of the 10th class without holding public examinations. This has resulted in a loss of 40 to 50 percent tuition fees as the arrears of the academic year 2019-20 is to be collected.
Explaining that some of the schools have already been closed in the state due to untenable financial burden, he said, other schools are about to follow suit as there is no other option left for them to protect their institutions but to wind them up.
Barely four days has passed after reopening of the schools in the state, the fear grips the parents yet again with the incident of few students in one of the government-run schools at Choppa Dandi in Karimnagar got affected with coronavirus.
As per the reports, 11 out of 86 students of Sainik School Rukmapur in Choppa Dandi Mandal of Karimnagar District were affected with coronavirus after reopening the school. The incident creates panic even among the 45 staff members working in the school.
“Presently some CBSE, ICSC, and Corporate schools that too in Hyderabad city have taken bold to facilitate students to interact with the teachers. However, budget schools in Telangana state have not yet been convinced with the center’s decision to reopen the schools as there were no proper COVID-related facilities necessitated under guidelines are available in rural areas that can help private schools to chin up against the situation. This would only increase the financial burden over the schools which have already incurred heavy loss due to noncollection of arrears of the previous year,” explained Shekhar Rao.
“Only state-run schools are somewhat able to manage the situation but the same is not the case with private schools as providing education with all necessary facilities is a rather costly affair. Therefore, it is better for the government to absorb all the budget schools and run them under its own supervision by paying salaries to staff on par with government employees,” he demanded.
