Telangana Assembly: BRS, Congress spar over school closures, education budget

Participating in a debate on the State budget in the Assembly here, former Minister and senior BRS MLA P Sabitha Indra Reddy questioned the Congress government’s failure to fulfill its promise of reopening schools shut under the previous regime

Hyderabad: The closure of several government schools in the State led to a heated debate in the Telangana Assembly on Tuesday, with the BRS and Congress blaming each other. The BRS held the Congress government for sharp decline in student admissions and also poor conditions in Gurukul schools.

Participating in a debate on the State budget in the Assembly here, former Minister and senior BRS MLA P Sabitha Indra Reddy questioned the Congress government’s failure to fulfill its promise of reopening schools shut under the previous regime.

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“The Congress which repeatedly accused the BRS of closing 6,000 schools, has itself shut down 1,913 schools citing zero enrollment and another 400 due to teacher rationalisation,” she said, demanding clarity on how many schools were reopened after the Congress came to power.

She also pointed out that 257 gram panchayats lack government schools, despite a policy mandate. Raising concerns over declining student enrollment, she cited the government’s own Socio-Economic Survey, which showed a drop from 23 lakh to 19 lakh students in government schools, while private school enrollment increased from 31 lakh to 36 lakh.

Raising concerns about teacher recruitment, Sabitha Indra Reddy criticised the government for issuing a notification for only 11,000 teacher posts, despite earlier claims of 25,000 vacancies. She took a dig at Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy over unfulfilled promises, recalling his statement that he would resolve Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya teachers’ issues within the time it takes to sip tea.

“I wonder whether the Chief Minister stopped drinking tea,” she said. She also reminded that Revanth Reddy was not the Chief Minister for his Kodangal constituency alone, but for Telangana. Citing the Congress’ allegations over the development of Gajwel, Sircilla and Siddipet, she stated that Revanth Reddy took up recruitment of Vidya Volunteers in his constituency, but ignored the rest of the State.

Legislative Affairs Minister D Sridhar Babu defended his government, stating that education and health remained top priorities. “We have already reopened 79 schools shut under BRS, but rebuilding the system will take time,” he said.

However, BRS leader T Harish Rao challenged Sridhar Babu’s claim that the previous government failed to recruit teachers. “Under BRS, we appointed 26,000 teachers i.e. 8,000 through TGPSC and 18,000 for Gurukul schools,” he countered. He said the Minister was evading the issue of school closures under Congress rule.