NOB- Telangana news: To get quality education, the only solution seems to be to completely abolish private schools in the country. Then the children of Chief Ministers, their grandchildren, the children of officials, the children of the rich, and the children of the poor will all have to study in government schools only. With that, the working system, facilities, and quality of education of the schools will all improve. By setting up six to ten schools per mandal and establishing a transport system for the remaining small villages, the number of schools will be reduced, the facilities will improve, and the standards of education will be raised in government schools. As stated in the Constitution of India, the government itself should provide quality education to everyone. It is a historical truth that if poverty has been eradicated and if there has been good development in any country, the foundation for it is school education, college education, and university education. But in our country, government officials, politicians, and contractors are not able to pay as much attention to providing quality education to children as they do to the project work they are given. Civil engineering projects and real estate transactions provide the money needed for elections. Investments in government schools do not bring in money, do they? That is why politicians feel that spending time on education is a waste of time. However, if we have political integrity, it is not impossible for us to provide quality education to everyone. Let us see how. Let me analyze and tell you how private education and government education are in a district where I worked as a collector. If there is one teacher for every 38 students in a private school in the district, there is one teacher for every 17 students in government schools in that district. If private management spends an average of Rs. 6,200 per student every year (how much private management receives from parents is a different matter) and manages to prepare 86 percent of the students in the ‘A’ grade in quality, then in our government schools, despite spending an average of Rs. 35,000 per student every year, 67 percent of the students are unable to pass the ‘C’ grade. While private management pays a teacher between Rs.5,000 and Rs.20,000 per month (depending on the subject), the government pays a teacher between Rs.35,000 and Rs.1,20,000 per month. So, where is the fault? It must be said that it lies with the government administration. In one of the same districts (backward district), if we analyze the situation in one mandal, 4500 students are studying in private schools in four big villages, while 1400 are studying in government schools in 36 villages in the same mandal. In that mandal, poor and middle class parents are taking loans and paying fees ranging from Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 30,000 per student per year. The rest of the middle class families, including a certain number of big farmers, are sending their families to big cities and sending their children to private convent schools. ‘It feels humiliating to send them to government schools,’ parents in one village told us. When the children of the next house are dressed up in tip-top clothes, wearing ties and shoes, and going to a private school in the mandal center in a van, how can we send our children to a government school in a poor village? Recently, a ‘troll’ has been widely circulated on WhatsApp. A private school building is magnificent but the private teacher lives in a shack. When it comes to a government school, the government school building is in a bad condition. But the government teacher’s house is magnificent in the district headquarters. That is a very good example to understand the situation. Another incident – ​​ the scene in the villages when we went to China 16 years ago. There, government schools are in modern buildings in the villages, and teachers live in buildings built by the government. It is because of the investment and attention that the government there put on primary education in the 1950s that China is today a leading country in the world. ‘Why don’t you send your children to government schools?’ When I asked parents in many villages, they would tell me the following things: There is no English medium; there are no basic facilities like toilets, clean drinking water, furniture in the classrooms; there is no quality in teaching. Moreover, they pointed out the absence of LKG and UKG. They say a name for a private school owner, such as Krishna Reddy or Srinivas Rao (for example). They say the same for a government school owner in your village, such as the government.

What are the problems here? The same is true for Krishna Reddy and Srinivas Rao schools, where the quality of education and the facilities in the schools are taken, but we do not see the same steps taken in government schools. There, teachers are accountable to the school owners. And the big question is to whom are the teachers of government schools accountable. Some may say that they should be accountable to the government, but two questions arise here. One, it is a strange system where the government is not visible as far as education is concerned. Two, are the teachers afraid of the government? Or are the governments afraid of the teachers? The solution to this is to gather parents and form committees, strengthen those committees, provide them with participation in school administration, and if every parent can contribute Rs. 1,000 per year (in two installments) to the School Corpus Fund for each student, then the parents will have the power to question the teachers. The ability to review the quality of education will come naturally. Without public participation, no matter how much money the government spends, government schools will not improve. If every rupee spent by the government can be spent through the parent’s committee, the quality and speed of work will increase. In the old days, when there were no private schools, the quality of government schools in rural areas and the determination of teachers were very visible. Back then, the village headmen, government teachers living there, and government employees used to send their children to government schools. They would carefully monitor the quality of the programs being conducted in the schools. Teachers would be held accountable. Now, no government employee (including the Gram Panchayat Secretary) lives in the village (except for the Anganwadi teacher). In many villages, public representatives do not even live. Big farmers and public representatives are moving their families to cities. Only poor families are sending their children to government schools. They do not have the ability to question teachers or the knowledge to monitor their children’s education. In America and European countries, there is a system called ‘school district’. That is, all children in a settlement must study in government schools. There are very few residential schools there. If there is a good school near our village, there is no need to send children to far-off Gurukul schools (private corporate, government, etc.). Expensive Gurukul schools are not the solution for quality education. Children studying in Gurukul schools are losing their childhood rights and the happy time that parents should spend with their children. There is a great need to introduce English medium for all classes immediately (except Telugu medium for class 10) in all states across the country. If we consider the issues discussed here, our social conditions, political system, and caste system, the only solution seems to be the complete abolition of private schools in the country if we want to get quality education. By having students of all castes go to the same school, brotherhood and harmony will be created among the students. The caste system will also be weakened. We have abundant human, technological, and financial resources to provide quality education, especially in our state. All that is needed is for the governments to have a commitment to provide quality education to students of all communities as a fundamental right! If the government shows sincerity in this matter, poverty can be eliminated in the state and the country. A secular society, a golden Telangana, and a golden India can be built said Aakunuri Murali, I.A.S.(As a citizen).