Enrollment into govt schools in Telangana less than last academic year 

Ongoing teachers’ transfers and promotions undertaken by the Congress government seem to have cast a shadow on the Class I enrollments in the government and local body schools.

Hyderabad: Only 70,116 students have been admitted to Class I in the government and local body schools as part of the Professor Jayashankar Badi Bata (admission drive) that concluded for the academic year 2024-25.

This enrollment is said to be less than the number of students admitted during the last year’s admission drive.

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A total of 1,46,824 children have been admitted to Class I till the schools reopening day i.e., June 12, 2023, with a total admissions being 1,95,820 during the academic year 2023-24.

Ongoing teachers’ transfers and promotions undertaken by the Congress government seem to have cast a shadow on the Class I enrollments in the government and local body schools.

With teachers and School Education department officials being occupied with transfers and promotions process that commenced on June 8, it is learnt that not much focus was laid on the admission drive, impacting over all enrollments in government and local body schools.

On the other hand, the department officials anticipated participation of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy in the ‘Badi Bata’ to boost the enrollment drive. However, the Chief Minister did not take part in the drive.

Although Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka, Ministers – Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Damodara Raja Narsimha, Ponnam Prabhakar, Konda Surekha, Jupally Krishna, Seethakka, and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy – took part in the admission drive, it failed to yield desired results.

Moreover, this time, the department has come up with a unique admission campaign urging the parents to enroll their children in the government, saving around Rs.50,000 to Rs.1.5 lakh per year instead of spending the amount in private schools. This saved amount, according to the campaign, can be utilized for children’s higher education. However, this seems to have not attracted parents.

While the main enrollment drive has come to end, the officials expect the numbers to shoot up as admissions will continue till the last week of September.

As part of the ‘Badi Bata’, schools have been asked to identify children of five years of age and above via door-to-door campaign, and enroll them into Class I in the nearby primary schools.

Apart from admitting eligible Anganwadi children, teachers have been asked to identify school-age and out-of-school children, drop outs, never enrolled children and long absentees with the help of SHGs and enroll them in the schools

Meanwhile, 18,50,400 students received their uniforms and 20,98,099 students got textbooks till the last count on Thursday. Further, 11,65,748 students got notebooks and another 4,31,780 students received workbooks so far.