With the Andhra Pradesh government freezing funds for aided institutions in the state, Education Minister Audimulapu Suresh had to issue a clarification on the fact that these schools will not be forced into a merger with the government. The minister went on to add that the managements are well within their rights to run the schools by themselves if they happen to have the resources. However, he also added that according to the report submitted by a committee set up by the CM, a majority of aided institutions were functioning without proper infrastructure and staff strength.
Suresh informed the media that a timetable has been prepared to map the students of the schools that are going to close and web counseling for the redeployment of the surrendered teachers will be held towards the end of October.
The YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government had announced this week that the funds being transferred to aided institutions would be frozen and diverted instead to some of the government's flagship schemes such as Vidya Deevena and Vasathi Deevena in order to provide students with more incentives to attend school. The committee had also submitted that quality of education, staff recruitment and performance, and infrastructure is due for a much-needed boost under the government's Nadu-Nedu scheme.
The opposition had made claims this week about government officials harassing schools to give up control to the government and in light of these allegations, the minister reiterated the fact that managements needed to hand over the institutions only if they believed they couldn't run them anymore. He also assured that the government would improve infrastructure and fill up vacant posts at the outset.
“Many of the observations in the report came as a shock. Several schools have had vacancies for a long time or are completely defunct due to a lack of a sufficient number of teachers or students. Some schools are mired in ownership disputes or have a lack of consensus between teachers and employers," the report had stated.
“Over 137 degree colleges responded positively to the proposal. Of them, seven agreed on paper to hand over staff and property, and 124 others agreed to surrender only staff,” Suresh said. Out of 122 junior colleges, five opted to surrender property and staff while 103 others chose to surrender only staff. In the case of aided schools, 1,200 out of 1,988 in the state agreed on paper to surrender their staff and 88 others opted to surrender property and staff both, the minister informed.
