State schools see rise in student numbers

■ Enrolments in tribal welfare residential schools go up

Despite the prevailing trend of parents opting for private schools over government ones for their children’s education, the government schools in the state witnessed a rise in admissions for the current academic year 2018-2019.

In 2017-2018, there were 21, 50,626 students in the government schools. However, this year the number has gone up to 22, 69, 400 for the academic year 2018-2019.

Tribal Welfare Residential schools have received the maximum number of enrollments this academic year followed by Social Welfare Residential schools with a strength of 95,677 students in this academic year. In 2017-2018, the strength was only 81,654 students. Aadharsha Pathshala which had a strength of 90,136 students in the academic year 2017-2018 now has 95,242 students.

The demand from the parents was so huge in some government schools that a few schools had to put up a no-vacancy board after many parents started fighting for admissions. In schools like Rajbhavan School, Mehbubiya School, Government Model High School Aliya, Govt High School in Hitec city, Indira Nagar Government High School at Lingareddypally, Government High School in Narendra Nagar in Warangal, there was a rush for admissions.

General Secretary, Telangana United Teachers Federation (TUTF), Chava Ravi said, “It is really good that about 2 lakh students have enrolled for government schools in the state. It is a major change because the student strength has increased in such schools and the strength. This change has come due to the improvement in the government schools and due to exorbitant fees in the private schools and also due to an increase in the number of English medium schools.”

President, Telangana Progressive Teachers Federation, M. Ravinder said, “There are about 3032 government schools for the English medium in Hyderabad due to which parents are showing interest. The only problem is that there are hardly any teachers to teach the students due to which Telugu medium teachers are forced to teach the English medium students. This in turn is hampering the quality of education in government schools.”

“If the government planned to start English medium schools they should have hired English medium teachers,” he added.