Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh Education department issued G.O No. 29 on Rationalisation of schools across the state. This move is facing severe criticism. Around 9,000 schools with poor strength were on the verge of closure with the recent GO. The schools’ education department issued the directions for allocation of teachers in government schools across 13 districts.
According to the GO. No. 29, primary schools with less than 20 enrolments, Upper Primary schools with less than 40 enrolments and High schools with less than 50 enrolments within 1 Km radius could be considered as Non-viable and consolidated with nearby existing schools. This will result in closure of around 6,500 primary schools, 2,500 upper primary schools and 50 high schools across 13 districts of AP.
The district-level rationalisation committee under the chairmanship of the District collector, will be formed with five members to take up the rationalisation process. Rationalisation is a big threat to government schools in Guntur district. Nearly 450 schools would be closed in Capital district, Guntur. The schools with low admissions would be merged into the nearby schools and those schools would be closed.
Educationists and teachers’ unions are alleging that the government has brought this GO to weaken government schools as a part of their plan to encourage corporate education.
“Guidelines issued by government on rationalisation of schools is doing nothing but degrading government schools. Around one lakh poor students in various government schools will suffer with rationalization. We will agitate against this and demand that the government withdraw trials to close government schools,”says Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Federation State President G. Hrudaya Raju.
Communist Party of India (CPI) state secretary K. Ramakrishna wrote a letter to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu demanding the withdrawal of the G.O which can become a threat to government schools.
