Hyderabad High Court questions Telangana government about fate of 1,800 students

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court has directed the Telangana state government to inform it by Monday the status of children of 1,800 government schools which are stated to be closed after they were left without teachers after the recent transfers.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Thottathil Bhaskaran Nair Radhakrishnan and Justice V. Ramasubramanian was dealing with a PIL filed by by Mr R. Venkat Reddy, national convener, MV Foundation, seeking to direct the TS and AP governments to initiate concrete steps to improve learning outcomes of children studying in government and government-aided schools.

Counsel for the petitioner submitted that the all India National Achievement Survey 2017, the state level RMSA (Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan) survey of the Centre and several others had reported an alarming fall in learning outcomes of children studying in government schools in both states. 

Reacting to the submissions, the bench asked, “Our heart is with the issues raised in the petition but how can the court intervene to ensure learning outcomes are improved.”

The Chief Justice said that in his home state Kerala, several MLAs and elected representatives send their children to government schools and they take active part in parent-teacher meetings. Maybe such aspects can be replicated here with the help of NGOs like that of the petitioner, he added.

Counsel said over 50 per cent of students studying in government schools could even read or write in both English and Telugu medium, do basic addition or subtraction or understand basic science concepts. 

Adding to this pathetic situation, the recent transfers had resulted in over 1,800 government schools being left without a single teacher and they were closed, leading to children going out to work in the fields.  While directing the state government to inform the status of students in the 1,800 schools, the bench adjourned the case to Monday.