Hyderabad: Having set lofty goals for his reign, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu released nine white papers on various issues to vouch for the progress made over the past five years. They set the ball rolling for political machinations in the state.
The government has tried to blame its shortcomings on the Centre’s indifference. With the principal opposition party, the YSR Congress Party attacking it for having sacrificed the special category status (promised to it during bifurcation) for cozy relations with the Centre, the TDP regime released the papers.
In 2015, the AP government adopted Social Empowerment Mission and Knowledge Mission to “transform the state into a social and knowledge capital” through development of education, health and welfare infrastructure.
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But critics say a closer look at the allocations reveals that words were not matched by deeds.
The government’s rhetorical answer to its shortcomings has been that sans a capital city like Hyderabad, the state is revenue deficit. But the government’s budget has seen a steady growth of revenue.
The budgetary allocation for the education sector (school, higher and technical education) rose from Rs 15,681 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 24,961 crore in 2018-19. The figures indicate a rise in allocations, but as a percentage of the budget, they have fallen.
“With such allocations, it is difficult for the state to lead the country in the education sector by 2025, says P. Babu Reddy, general secretary of the Andhra Pradesh United Teachers Federation. “Our literacy rate is 67.66%, which places us at number 31 in the country out of the 35 states and union territories,” he said.
Ideally as per the Kothari Commission report, allocation for education should be 6% of the GDP, 30% of the state budget and 10% of the Union budget. The Delhi government allocated the highest percentage for education at 26.4% of the total budget. Bihar and West Bengal follow with 18% and Kerala third with 16.64%.
Vacant positions
In October 2018, there were 22,000 vacant teacher posts in AP. But the government issued a notification only for 7,907 posts.
K. Sravan Kumar is a Supreme Court lawyer who filed a PIL in 2013 saying the united Andhra Pradesh government was apathetic towards filling vacancies. He says, “Both the AP and Telangana governments claimed there were no vacancies for teachers, which is untrue. Hidden in the AP government’s affidavit was that there were 5,900 vacancies.” It said they would be adjusted through rationalisation of schools.
The Ashok Gupta committee, which was appointed by the SC to verify vacancies, said there are 9,000 vacant teacher posts in AP. “When we filed a contempt petition before the SC, the Telangana government issued a notification to fill the vacancies a day before the hearing. The AP government said it the vacancies would be filled by February 2019. The case was posted to March. It hasn’t been listed since,” says Sravan Kumar.
In 2017, the AP government issued a government order to rationalise 9,000 schools. After receiving much flak, it only merged or shut down 6,000 schools. “If implemented, the move would have resulted in closure of 6,500 primary schools, 2,500 upper primary schools and 50 high schools. These actions are contrary to the government’s vision of developing the state into a knowledge capital,” Babu Reddy said.
Rationalisation would have resulted in closure of 6,500 primary schools, 2,500 upper primary schools and 50 high schools. Credit: Reuters/Files
Problem of dropping out
V. Balasubramanyam, an MLC who represents the teacher’s constituency from Prakasam, Nellore and Chittoor districts, says the socio-economic background of the 33% children who dropout from schools should not be lost sight of. “The overall tribal literacy rate in AP is just 39.94%. Among females, it’s 29.97%. Only the middle and higher middle classes among the Scheduled Castes and backward castes are receiving higher education. The poor are unable to avail education.”
He says to increase retention after Class X, intermediate education (Class XI and XII) should be made part of school education. “This is a major issue and affects the access to education in lower castes more,” the MLC says.
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The government’s white paper claims that the teacher-pupil ratio is 1:22 at the primary level and 1:27 at the secondary level, against the norm of 1:30 and 1:35 respectively. But teachers reject this claim and say there are classes with even 60 students. Several schools either lack sufficient number of classrooms or teachers.
Teachers are also given other duties like planting trees or surveying toilets in villages. This takes away at least 30-40 days of an academic year, reducing the time they have to teach students.
Private colleges
Even in higher education, vacancies in government universities are plenty. Of the 3,259 teaching posts sanctioned across universities in AP, 1,711 are vacant. In a major blow to the autonomy of universities, recruitment was recently handed over to the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission.
Therefore, about 82% of students from the state pursue higher education in private colleges. Of the total 2,572 colleges, 2,105 are private and there are just 302 government colleges and 165 aided ones.
Fees reimbursements was a flagship scheme started by the late Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy-led Congress government in 2004. The spending amounts to around Rs 4,000 crore per year. The allocations for fee reimbursements are paid from the welfare measures allocated to each section of the population.
For SC, ST and BC communities, it is paid from their welfare budget. For the general category it is paid under different heads. The budget for higher education in 2018-19 in AP was Rs 3,349 crores. This shows the budgetary allocation for fee reimbursements for mainly technical education is more than the amount allocated to higher education.
“This has resulted in more no of students in the private sector. Once the college is constructed by the government, the college is available for students and there is no recurring cost. There is no fee reimbursement scheme in TN or Kerala but the general enrolment ratio in those states is higher. So the argument that fee reimbursement has increased reach of students to higher education also doesn’t wash,” said Balasubramanyam.
He added that a large number of MLAs, MLCs and MPs in AP have a vested interest in the issue as they own private technical institutes. “In fact, it was started with this view. There is no mechanism to ensure quality in these institutes. The fee reimbursement scheme sounded a death knell for public funded education in the state,” the MLC said.
G. Ram Mohan is a freelance journalist.