Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has alleged that the wrong priorities of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and the distorted logic adopted by his government have ruined the education sector.
He was speaking at the round table conference organised by KG to PG Educational Institutions Joint Action Committee at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram here on Thursday.
Mr Reddy said Telangana was apparently the only state where the number of educational institutions and student enrolment were on the decline. During the last three-and-a-half years, the situation has worsened not only in government institutions, but also in private institutions.
Quoting figures compiled by the Joint Action Committee, he said there were 2,100 junior colleges in 2014-15, but just 1,650 in 2017-18. While student enrolment in government junior colleges went down from 4.45 lakh in 2014-15 to 4.30 lakh in 2017-18, it declined from 3.20 lakh to 2.90 lakh in corporate colleges.
The number of lecturers, too, has been reduced by 1,000, to 56,000 in 2017-18. The number of affiliated degree colleges came down from 1,078 in 2014-15 to 960 in 2017-18, while 25 affiliated PG colleges were closed during the same period.
Consequently, the number of students was reduced by 5,000. The number of degree and PG residential colleges remained static at 180 with 1.70 lakh students during the last three years.
The PCC president said that with the growing population, the number of educational institutions and students should increase every year. He pointed out that the existing 544 residential schools were benefiting only a small percentage of students, while the state has over 52 lakh students from KG to PG who are being neglected.
He pointed out that a survey conducted by an NGO, Rythu Swaraj, revealed that one of the major reasons for farmers’ suicide was their inability to afford education for their children in corporate institutions.
He said that the TRS government has failed to regulate the fee structure in the private sector and a few institutions have been allowed to loot parents.
Telangana Political Joint Action Committee chairman Prof. M. Kodandaram said the inefficiency of the state government in handling issues concerning education will force the JAC to call for a state-wide strike some day. National president of the BC Welfare Association and MLA R. Krishnaiah, TD leader Ravula Chandrashekhar Reddy and other experts and academicians also participated in the conference.
