20,000 Telangana Students Write to High Court

Hyderabad:Around 20,000 students from government schools across Telangana have written postcards to the Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court, highlighting the shortage of teachers and basic infrastructure in their schools. Representatives of several public organisations on Tuesday urged the High Court to take suo motu cognisance of the letters and treat them as a public interest litigation. They sought specific directions to the state government to fill vacant teacher posts, provide classrooms and improve facilities in government schools.

Campaigners said students from primary and high schools had written the postcards in their own handwriting as part of the campaign, aimed at drawing attention to the constitutional right to education guaranteed under Article 21A.

Speaking to the media, Ravi Prakash Mayreddy of the Dial Your Village initiative, Yadma Madhava Reddy of the Vandemataram Foundation, Sai Kumar of MV Foundation, Dileep Reddy of People’s Pulse and others said many government schools lacked safe drinking water, separate toilets for boys and girls, science laboratories, libraries, playgrounds and sports equipment. They said several schools were functioning without adequate teachers, leaving classrooms vacant and affecting the quality of education.

One student, Shravani, said her school lacked classrooms, drinking water and computers. Another student, Vaishnavi of Guavvaladinne village, said she walks 4 km to school at Nandini mandal and 4 km back every day because of the absence of bus services. She said some students were dropping out because of the difficulty in travelling.

The organisations urged the government, the Telangana State Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the Education Department to act immediately, and sought improvement in all government schools, not just Telangana Public Schools and integrated schools.