Amaravati: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader and former minister, K.S. Jawahar on Monday accused the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) of hampering the education system in Andhra Pradesh in the garb of the New Education Policy (NEP) recommended by the Kasturirangan report.
Jawahar said that the TDP would launch a state-wide agitation to prevent the state government from hampering students’ academic opportunities and urged the general public to join the agitation in order to pressurise the government.
The TDP would organise statewide protests under ‘Maa Ooru Maa Badi’ campaign. “CM Jagan Mohan Reddy was hell-bent on destroying the education system with his ulterior and narrow-minded decisions,” he added.
Addressing a press conference here, Jawahar remarked, “TDP would strongly oppose the merger of classes 3, 4 and 5 with the high schools, the move to reduce primary schools is highly condemnable.”
He went on to say that the introduction of the CBSE syllabus from the 9th class was yet another “thoughtless, Tughlaq decision.”
Jawahar recalled how Chandrababu Naidu made education accessible for the people as schools were set up within one kilometre from the residential areas as part of the Janmabhoomi program. “Now, Jagan Reddy was bent on making schools inaccessible to the students,” he remarked
The former minister stated that the NEP and the English medium would weaken the education system in the state. “As per the Kothari Commission, there was a need for a separate classroom for every class, a separate teacher for every subject and a separate teacher for every class,” he said.
“But, Jagan Reddy was trying to make sure there would be no required number of schools altogether,” the TDP leader alleged.
He then questioned the merger of classes 3, 4 and 5 with high schools, and expressed concerns over the difference in methods of classroom teaching and sports among them. “The chief minister and his advisors were making decisions which could hamper students as if they were taking revenge against the education sector,” stressed Jawahar.
“They plan to make educational opportunities inaccessible to the common people,” he further alleged.
The former minister also accused the state government of betraying the youth by not taking up DSC recruitment and not filling the teacher posts. “All sections of people should join hands to prevent the YCP rulers from moving schools away from the villages,” Jawahar said.
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