Telangana BJP president and Union Minister for Coal and Mines G. Kishan Reddy has questioned the Congress Government for failing to appoint vice-chancellors for public universities across the State and neglecting the needs of both higher and primary education in terms of necessary funds, infrastructure and staffing.
In an elaborate statement released to the media on Tuesday, he accused the regime of following the footsteps of the BRS in keeping the education sector in the dark by not releasing sufficient funds and in not taking up recruitment to fill faculty positions in universities and teachers’ posts in schools.
Mr. Reddy said that there are 2,400 vacancies in varsities — Osmania University has 1,268 posts of which 848 are vacant, and Kakatiya varsity has 403 posts of which 293 vacant. There are 25,000 vacant teachers’ posts while 6,800 schools have a single teacher.
None of the Telangana educational institutions figure in the top 100 in the latest report of National Institute of Ranking Framework (NIRF) and that is an indication of the steep fall in standards. The 100-year-old OU secured the 70th rank, it was 64 in the previous year and 46th in 2022, which meant it could not even retain its status.
“If this is the sorry plight of the top university, one can well imagine the condition of the other institutions in TG. In sharp contrast, IIT-Hyderabad, University of Hyderabad, IIIT-Hyderabad and others have shown excellent ranking,” he pointed out.
Stating that universities will flourish only with proper staffing, infrastructure and sufficient funds, Mr. Kishan Reddy said that whatever money is being released by the government is just enough for payment of salaries with nothing left for research and development. “How long will this government run universities with in-charge VCs?,” he asked.
The plight of government schools is even pathetic, lacking furniture and toilets, forget about computers or internet connections. Drinking water connection is available in 25,217 of the 30,104 schools, while there are no ladies’ toilets in 14,028 schools. Despite high fees, citizens are admitting their children to private schools with 10,000 of them having 30 lakh students on their rolls where as 30,000 government schools have 29 lakh strength only, he said.
Fee reimbursement arrears have reached about ₹7,519 crore, he alleged, and wondered when the stipend for the unemployed or filling up two lakh posts will be taken up “The youth played a major role in attainment of a separate Telangana. They had high hopes of educational institutions improving post formation of Telangana. Yet, neither the previous BRS nor the Congress government has bothered to take steps to improve their conditions except blaming each other,” he said.
Urging the CM to take measures to improve the education sector for the sake of the younger generation, he warned that any more neglect will be detrimental to both the present and future generations.
