Parents shun Telangana government schools and colleges, prefer private institutions: UDISE Report

On the other hand, admissions have surged in the private institutions from 35,14,338 in 2021-22 to 39,27,042 in 2022-23 to 44,31,380 in 2023-24, making 9,17,042 more admissions compared to 2021-22

Hyderabad: In a worrisome trend in public sector education system, the government schools and junior colleges in Telangana have seen a massive drop in admissions, marking a stark contrast to growing popularity of the private institutions.

Admissions dropped from 33,03,699 in the academic year 2021-22 to 30,09,212 in 2022-23 to 27,79,713 in 2023-24, 5,23,986 less enrollments compared to 2021-22. This drop rang alarming bells in the government establishment about the quality of education being offered in the public schools and colleges.

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On the other hand, admissions have surged in the private institutions from 35,14,338 in 2021-22 to 39,27,042 in 2022-23 to 44,31,380 in 2023-24, making 9,17,042 more admissions compared to 2021-22.

Ironically, the number of government institutions was 30,022 as against 12,126 private institutions during the academic year 2023-24.

This has been revealed in the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) plus report, which has recently been released by the Ministry of Education.
Despite holding Badi Bata (admission drive), the government school recorded a drop in admissions.

For the last several years, the government school teachers have been holding an admission drive by reaching out to every household and enrolling students into their respective schools.

In addition, children from Anganwadi centres were being directly admitted to the government primary schools. In fact, 1.5 lakh students from the private sector shifted to government schools as parents could not afford to pay the school fee during the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.

Further, due to demand for English medium education, the government had introduced the same in all its schools across the State. To ensure smooth transition of students from Telugu into English medium education, bilingual textbooks were also provided to students. All these efforts appear to have failed to retain students, let alone increase in enrollments.

“Due to lack of enough infrastructure students who joined during the Covid-19 pandemic period shifted to private schools. Moreover, supervision of the schools is lacking. Also, it is a status symbol for parents to enroll their wards in private schools. At least now the government has to provide basic amenities, improve infrastructure and fill up supervising posts besides instilling confidence among parents in the public education system,” said Chava Ravi, president United Teachers’ Federation Telangana State.