Hyderabad: Functional issues like the lack of teachers and lack of school management funds in the education department is creating uneasiness as there is no one to take decisions on policy matters because the ministry has not been formed yet.
The secretaries are empowered to take decisions but they are waiting for the ministries to be formed. The ongoing works are only being supervised while major works on funds and recruitment in primary, secondary and higher levels have taken a backseat.
Schools in the state did not receive any funds as contingency or school management funds for the academic year 2018-2019. In every academic year, every government-run school gets around Rs 65,000 for higher schools and Rs 20,000 for the primary level. These amounts are utilised for stationery purchase like chalks, duster, attendance registers and for minor repairs in the school premises. The schools are managing their issues with the leftover money from earlier years.
Mr Chava Ravi of the United Teacher Federation (UTF) said, “There have been no funds for schools and as a result, schools cannot even solve minor building repairs and buy chalks. Some principals are even putting in money from their pockets, expecting a reimbursement later on by the government.”
As per the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the Centre gives 60 per cent funds and the state has to release 40 per cent. But though the Centre released its share, the state did not, which was the main reason why schools were not even getting school management funds, according to Mr Naganti Narayana, Education expert, Centre for Educational research and Analysis (CERA). He added that the lack of a proper ministry for education and the assembly elections earlier had become a major obstacle for taking policy level decisions.
The issue of promotions and teacher recruitment is also pending since long. Out of 540 Mandal Education Officers, there are 503 posts lying vacant in the state, and as far as Deputy Education Officers are concerned, almost all the posts are vacant. These would get filled with promotions, added Mr Chava Ravi.
There are as many as 16,000 teacher posts lying vacant in the state, but even the notified 8,000 posts were also not recruited. The problem of recruitment expands to junior colleges and Universities as well, where thousands of posts are still lying vacant.
Decisions regarding the service rules of teachers and individual files regarding their service grants are also not moving forward. Mr B. Kondal Reddy, state president of the Telangana Progressive Teachers Federation, said, “Even retired teachers are also facing issues as the government is taking more than six months to clear the insurance amount. Earlier it used to be done in the span of one month.”
Earlier, around 4,500 primary schools started teaching in English medium but there has been no further progress in these schools.
