In an alarming trend that would have a far-reaching impact on the future of thousands of children, 40 per cent of students who were admitted in budget private schools in the State are neither attending online classes nor have they paid the fee for the current academic year.
Further accentuating the increasingly bleak situation, many of these budget schools, which approximately account for 54 per cent of school-goers, are on the verge of closure. "We don't know how many students will be with us by the end of this academic year. Many budget schools function from rented buildings," said Sreedhar Reddy of Telangana Recognised Schools Management Association.
"The school managements are not being able to pay the rent. At least, 40 per cent of parents have not even paid the fee since the beginning of the academic year. Many students are not even attending online classes. So we have no idea on how many students will be with us by the end of the year," he said.
"Although the admissions have increased in government schools, the lack of access to digital resources and motivation factors are of major concerns. In private schools, it is a must for teachers to ensure that students attend online classes. They are even conducting periodic unit tests and also have completed quarterly exams," Reddy said.
"The government schools, on the other hand, are yet to begin classes. The syllabus to be taught has to be reduced by 70 per cent but that too will happen only the schools reopen. Besides, only basic and repetitive content is being taught online, where the reach remains poor," he added.
It is not known how many among 50 lakh school-going kids in the State actually have access to digital content. However, the data available with the T-SAT Network suggests that the reach is less than 25 per cent.
Besides, the T-SAT app recorded one million downloads as it caters content not only to school students but also to Intermediate and college students and those who are preparing for competitive exams, whose views to the content on the app and on the youtube is way more than school-goers.
