With 20 private schools registering zero pass percentage in the Telangana SSC examinations results announced on Wednesday, parents and experts are left in shock. In contrast, only eight government schools, one government hight school, two zila parishad schools and five unaided schools secured zero pass percentage.
Interestingly, Hyderabad which has the highest number of private schools in the state has been ranked at the 29 position among the 31 districts of the state with 73.26 per cent pass percentage, above only Suryapet (67.15 per cent ) and Wanaparthy (64.81 per cent ). "I wonder why we parents pay such hefty sums when this is the quality of education provided by the schools. We put them in private schools thinking that the will get quality education and a brighter future but these results paint a very different picture," said Aravinda Jata, a parent said.
"It's a wake-up call for school managements to look into the matter and find the cause. I feel maybe these schools didn't have pre-final exams. Maybe if they did, these results have shown and then the managements could have taken remedial measures," Sukumaran added.
Educationist Chukka Ramaiah sees the results, not as a failure of students but the failure of a government that failed to crack on ill-equipped schools, established only to make money.
"Several schools don't have infrastructure or finances. They don't appoint teachers and run schools with two or three people who may not even be qualified to teach. No classes are conducted but students are allowed to sit for the exams. Under such circumstances, students will fail," he said. He added that govenment can't disown private colleges. "If a student fails an exam, it is the loss of the nation," he said.
Aravinda, who is also a member of the Hyderabad Students Parents Association that is spearheading the fight aginst fee hike by private schools in the state said that if government improved the quality of education and infrastructure in government schools, people would be happy to send their children to government schools instead of private ones.