Telangana’s Integrated Residential Schools aim to provide inclusive, high-quality education, going beyond caste and community-specific hostels.
Published Oct 11, 2024 | 8:41 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 11, 2024 | 9:04 PM
Revanth Reddy warns strict action against those spreading fear over food poisoning incidents in Telangana schools
The Telangana government has unveiled a new concept that hopes to provide education of international standard in small towns and villages. The move is aimed at ensuring students learn together, under one roof, without being fragmented by castes and religions.
The seeds for the nine-year Young India Integrated Residential Schools were sown on Friday, 11 October. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy laid the foundation stone in Shadnagar Assembly segment’s Kondurg in the erstwhile Mahbubnagar district.
Revanth Reddy’s cabinet colleagues conducted ground breaking ceremony for 27 such schools in their respective Assembly constituencies. The schools are proposed to be different from the residential schools that are being run exclusively for different castes like the BCs, SCs, STS and other minorities.
There are about 1,023 residential schools in Telangana now, and several have been victims of apathy for long. Of them, 662 schools do not have buildings of their own and some do not have enough hostel rooms for their students.
So, students in these schools end up living in packed rooms, like sardines in a can. The education standards too have come down over some time, though there were flashes of excellence in some schools now and then.
After the Revanth Reddy-led Congress government took over, focus on education sector has increased significantly. The aim appears to be to ensure that students passing out of schools and colleges have the required skill sets to be absorbed by respective industries.
Besides laying a firm foundation in education for students over nearly a decade and preparing them for higher education, the programme aims to keep them in good stead when they pass out of Class 12. These residential schools would function in English medium as the teaching language.
The state government plans to start one Young India Integrated Residential school each in all the 119 Assembly segments of Telangana. The government claims that the instruction in these schools is benchmarked against international standards. In other words, the residential schools that are coming up would be much better than those which are in the private sector.
While private schools absorb more than half of the students in Telangana every year, there are as many as 24 lakh students in 30,000 government schools while a staggering 31 lakh students are enrolled in just 1,000 private schools.
The Young India Integrated Schools would cost about ₹150 crore each and they are expected to give a very stiff competition to the private schools. Each school is designed to be set up in an area spanning 25 acres, with ultra-modern facilities for the students, stressing on teaching with the aid of computers.
The plan is to have digital smart boards, computer centres, and libraries with over 5,000 books each. There would be sports facilities for the students to hone their talent in various sports including football, cricket, basketball and tennis. More importantly, the residential schools will take in all students, unlike the existing residential schools which restrict admission to any one category of religious or caste groups like STs, BCs or SCs.
The budget for the schools this year is about ₹5,000 crore, which includes funding for construction of buildings. “We do not want young minds to be divided along caste and religious faultlines,” the chief minister said after laying the foundation stone for the school in Shadnagar.
The construction is designed to be in accordance with climate-responsive planning, with enough ventilation, all round greenery and large vacant spaces around the schools. The government will tap solar and wind energy to meet the power requirements of schools, thus reducing the harm done to the atmosphere.
The students will be taught about being socially responsible, including understanding water conservation by making them a party to the construction of rain harvesting systems.
These schools aim to be inclusive of differently abled students, who will be taught in accordance with the norms that are being followed in advanced countries.
Prof Ghanta Chakrapani, former chairman of Telangana State Public Service Commission, however, is skeptical.
He said: “The Young India Integrated Schools may look good on the face of it, but the question that remains is, will they be inclusive? The government says there would be one such school in each constituency. Take for instance Mahabubangar district. If the government sets up 10 schools in the district, train students in international standards, you are creating an elite class among the students. The government’s responsibility is to make education inclusive and not exclusive to a section. The money that you are spending belongs to the people of Telangana. Every student should have access to education that the government is going to provide.”
He said that instead of spending the entire budget on a few select schools, it should be spread across all schools, by cutting down on ostentation and improving quality. “We have good teachers and if we improve infrastructure and focus on the government schools, like in Tamil Nadu, brilliant students will come out,” he said.
(Edited by Neena)
