The High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad has issued notices to the Education Departments in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh directing them to file counter affidavits within four weeks on the poor quality of education in these states.
The High Court has issued notices to the two states after admitting a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition seeking establishment of a permanent Evaluation Committee to monitor and suggest measures to improve learning outcomes of elementary students of government and government-aided schools.
A Division Bench comprising of Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K Vijayalakshmi gave this direction on Tuesday during the hearing of PIL filed by R Venkat Reddy, National Convenor of an NGO, MV Foundation.
The petitioner cited various surveys, including the National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2017 conducted by the Government of India that starkly showed how a majority of students in these schools were not able to read or write few words in both their mother tongue Telugu and in English, or do simple arithmetic.
The Survey conducted by MV Foundation also revealed similar levels of learning outcomes among students in Telangana.
The counsel for the petitioner submitted to the bench that overwhelming majority of students in these Government and Government-aided schools come from the most deprived and marginal sections of the society, belonging to SC, ST and OBC sections.
The governments' over-emphasis on preventing drop-outs of students and increasing enrolment has resulted in a situation where the quality of education being imparted and the students' competencies have been neglected.
Most of the eighth standard students in these schools were not having competencies of even a third standard student. In such a situation, what is the use of such education, he questioned.
The Bench directed the respondents to give their response in four weeks and adjourned the case till then.
