Former Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy claimed that his government has been changing the shapes of government schools through the `Nadu- Nedu’ programme, but in practice completely neglected in improving their infrastructure or quality of education. It mostly tried to use schools for their political gains, by changing their building colours, making use of teachers in non-education related activities.
There is not a single school in the state that stands out in terms of infrastructure and results among government schools across the state. This matter has come to light in a recent study undertaken by the coalition government. To know the status of government and aided schools, the government has announced a star rating for infrastructure and learning outcomes.
There are a total of 45,087 government and aided schools in the state, but not one of them has been able to achieve a five-star rating in at least one category. On the other hand, 87 schools in terms of facilities and 311 schools in terms of learning outcomes are in a terrible state with no rating (zero rating).
The previous YSRCP government campaigned extensively that the government schools in the state had been made to match the corporates. Similarly, in the learning outcomes, not a single school achieved five stars, while only 41 schools achieved four stars. All the remaining 45,000 schools were limited to three stars or lower.
In the infrastructure section, 18 items were taken as the standard for rating. Toilets, labs, playgrounds, fences, libraries, interactive flat panels, classrooms, drinking water, etc. were examined in the school. A grade of 5 was given for each item. Schools that achieved 90 percent of these grades were assigned 5 stars.
If less than 30, one star was given. In the learning outcomes section, teacher attendance, student attendance, last year’s 10th grade exam results, the results of the most recent summative assessment exams, and if there is no 10th grade, the results of the formative assessment exams were taken as the standard.
In these four categories, attendance was given 40 percent and results were given 60 percent. Schools that combined both exceeded 90 percent were given a five-star rating. Schools with results below that were given 1 to 4 stars.
The YSRCP government blew up students’ attendance and their exam results. In the name of Nadu-Nedu, it neglected teaching by giving schools colors, chairs, and benches. It reduced teaching time by assigning teachers to Nadu-Nedu tasks, toilets, and photos. At that time, teachers raised eyebrows over this. But the Jagan government turned a deaf ear to their concerns. It changed school education to the Nadu-Nedu scheme and degraded the results.
