Hyderabad: The Telangana Recognised School Management Association (TRSMA) had appeal to the government to open the schools and safeguard the education sector.
The TRSMA district chairman Uma Maheshwar Rao said that if the government does not take timely steps, many private schools will be forced to shut down which will lead to profound loss of teachers and students.
Speaking at Somajiguda Press Club, Rao said, “For the past 18 months the salaries of the teachers are not paid as the students are not attending the online classes and their parents are not paying the fee.”
“The government was paying Rs 2,000 and 25 kg of rice to the teachers but it has stopped the aid since last month. I appeal to the government to continue the aid to the teachers till the schools are opened,” Rao said.
The TRSMA treasure M Raghu said, “More than 300 private schools were closed in Hyderabad and many are at the verge of being closed. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, schools were closed and the students were promoted to the next classes without examination. Thus the guardians are reluctant to pay the school fees as they believe that their wards would be promoted again to the next class without examination. This is leading to not only the schools suffering financial losses but it is a great academic loss to the students as well.”
Raghu said many parents are unable to purchase mobiles for their children due to which these students are not able to attend the online classes. If there are 3 or 4 children in a home, the mobile phone is available only to the elder child to attend his online classes while the other children in lower classes are being neglected.
“In Hyderabad district there are 2041 government aided private schools out of which 1800 are private and the rest are government-aided schools where more than 60000 teaching and non-teaching staff are working whose salaries the school management is unable to pay. There are other overhead expenses like building rent, electric bills, and other miscellaneous expenses due to which more than 300 schools have been closed for an indefinite period. There are 4300 private schools in Medchal and Rangareddy district,” Raghu said.
According to a survey, more than 1 lakh students are not attending online classes. Many students of primary and upper primary are being admitted to government schools. Around 60% to 70% of students are not attending online classes owing to nonpayment of fees by their parents or they do not have mobile phone to attend online classes.