Hyderabad: Former minister Mohammad Ali Shabbir announced that Congress is launching a campaign against commercialisation of education in Telangana from Monday, coinciding with the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, India’s first education minister.
Speaking to media at Gandhi Bhavan, Shabbir Ali said many private institutions had turned education into a business. Poor and middle class families were unable to educate their children due to exorbitant fee, demand for donations, costly study material and other expenses. He charged that the state government is not taking any measures to regulate fee or stop such commercialisation of education.
The Congress leader alleged that school education in Hyderabad is costliest in India when compared to other metro cities in the country. While the annual school fee in Hyderabad ranges from `70,000 to `5 lakh, it does not exceed `1.5 lakh in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Pune.
He pointed out that many states have regulated private schools by putting a ceiling on annual fee that can be collected by them. However, TRS government has been doing nothing to stop private educational institutions from collecting exorbitant fee.
Mr Shabbir Ali said that since schools start issuing admission notifications in November, Maulana Azad’s birth anniversary is the right occasion to launch the campaign against commercialisation of education.
He also participated in a signature campaign organised by TPCC minorities’ department chairman Shaik Abdullah Sohail by signing a poster in this regard.
