To spruce up literacy levels in the state, the lowest among the four southern states, the Andhra Pradesh government has initiated a more rigorous reform process right from the level of school education. The reforms propose to bring down the number of high schools, merge the primary and upper primary schools with high schools and improve training facilities to teaching staff. The government has earmarked an investment of Rs 1 crore to each high school identified under the reform process, towards improving the infrastructure facilities and also providing ample training facilities to teachers.
As a first step, the government has identified 6,500 high schools, which can be reformed depending on their strategic location and proximity to a number of villages, out of a total of 10,500 high schools in the state. The government will undertake development of infrastructure in about 2,500 schools, starting from the current academic year. The project is scheduled to be completed in about a five-year period. For this, the state has earmarked Rs 1,000 crore in the budget for 2008-09.
??We propose to take up 100-125 high schools in each district for creating infrastructure facilities, like buildings, classrooms, science labs, library, sport facilities etc,?? CBS Vekataramana, principal secretary, school education said. Each school will have student strength of over 1,000, he added. The government has also decided to introduce English as medium of instruction from Class I, thus providing the option of English education, he added. Further, the government also proposes to introduce CBSE syllabus, which offers 11th and 12th standard. This would ease poor students of the financial burden of junior college education, he added.
The official said the government was willing to merge the primary and upper primary schools within the radius of 1 km from the high school. This would give critical mass to the school besides providing subject teachers to upper primary classes and would encourage weak students to improve. This way, the government can also utilise the services of teachers optimally.
However, there has been some opposition to these reforms. Critics say about 4,000 high-schools stand to be closed, thus denying an opportunity for students in remote villages. However, the officials said these schools in any case had poor strength and most of the teachers were unwilling to stay in villages due to non-existent social infrastructure. The issue of denying opportunity does not arise, as the proposed schools would have hostel facilities, the officials added.