Hyderabad: The state govt’s move to make changes in the education sector without consulting the Telangana Education Commission has come in for criticism by educationists.
The commission was set up by the state govt in Sept this year. But several decisions, including reverting to the old SSC examination pattern, were taken without consulting it, academics pointed out. The decision to do away with the existing pattern — 80 marks for externals and 20 marks for internals — was made by senior officials and ministers, they said.
“This decision was not taken by the govt in consultation with the commission,” said commission chairman Akunuri Murali.
The same is the case with integrated residential schools in the state as well. The Congress govt decided to start integrated residential schools instead of having separate ones for students based on their community (SC, ST and BC among others). In Oct, foundation stones for 28 new integrated residential schools were laid across Telangana.
“A decision such as reverting to the old SSC examination pattern should ideally be done after consulting all stakeholders, including the education commission, and debating the subject. Instead, decisions are being made by the govt alone,” said K Laxminarayana, professor, University of Hyderabad, and organising secretary of the Telangana Save Education Committee.
After it was formed in Sept by the Congress govt, the commission had held several meetings with members of various organisations. It met the Telangana Progressive Teachers’ Federation, Telangana State United Teachers’ Federation (TSUTF) and Telangana Junior Lecturers Association, among others to explore issues in the education sector and come up with measures to address them.
Currently, in the wake of food poisoning cases from govt residential schools, the commission said it was inspecting these schools also meeting all stakeholders to understand the problems.
