Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has made a mockery of one of his major electoral promise of providing ‘KG to PG’ free education.
Addressing the Surypet District Level meeting of Telangana State United Teachers Federation (TSUTF) at Vasavi Bhavan in Huzurnagar on Sunday, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that nearly 50 lakh students were enrolled from Kindergarten (KG) to Post Graduation (PG) in Telangana State. He said KCR came to power by promising to provide free, compulsory and high quality English medium education to all students. However, he reduced the entire concept to that of free residential schools which benefits only a fraction of total students. He said free residential schools were originally started during Congress regime long back. Just by increasing the number of schools, the Chief Minister is trying to give a wrong impression that he was implementing ‘KG to PG’ free education. He said majority of new residential schools lack required number of teachers and other staff while most of them have no basic infrastructure.
Uttam Kumar Reddy disputed the claims of State Government wherein it stated that it was spending an amount of Rs. 10,130 crore on school education and the per child expenditure in 2016-17 was Rs. 41,196. He said that the amount includes expenditure on salaries of teachers and staff; infrastructure development and various components of SSA, RMSA and Mid-day Meal programme, etc., He said compared to the State’s annual budget, this amount is roughly 6% which is too less. H said that the spending was much higher during Congress regime. Similarly, he said that the State Government’s spending on higher education and technical education has come down drastically. He pointed out that lakhs of students were still suffering due to non-clearance of Fee Reimbursement and scholarships dues.
The TPCC chief also slammed the TRS Government for delaying the process of recruitment of teachers in the State. He said that KCR never showed seriousness in strengthening the education sector. He said that the State Universities and government colleges were in a pathetic condition and except for making tall claims, the TRS Government was not taking any practical measures to improve the situation.
Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded that the Chief Minister fulfil his promise of giving ‘KG to PG’ free education by ensuring that every child of Telangana studies up to Post Graduation without spending a single rupee. He said that the government should bear the burden of books, uniforms and education while establishing free institutions right from KG to PG. (INN)