Jagan's education reforms axed; teachers happy, but fear new problems
Will Naidu regime's reforms, launched in the name of New Education Policy, help govt schools win back students from private institutions?
Ootla Subbarayudu (45), a petty trader from Dommara Nandyala village in Kadapa district in Andhra Pradesh, withdrew his son and daughter from the local government primary school in 2023.
This happened when classes 3, 4 and 5 were shifted to a nearby high school. Subbarayudu admitted them to a private school.
The shifting of these grades to high school, from primary school, was part of a major reform then Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy initiated in the name of implementing the New Education Policy (NEP) in 2022. Splitting the classes separated Subbarayudu’s son and daughter, who were in grades 2 and 4, respectively.
As he could not afford to send his 9-year-old daughter alone to a high school, located more than a kilometre away from his house, he thought it would be prudent to keep son and daughter together in a private school which operates a van to pick up the students.
Students bolt govt schools
This was the fallout of the implementation of the government order (GO) 117 issued in June 2022 in the name of implementing the NEP.
Jagan’s much-lauded English medium did not stop Subbarayudu from exiting the government school. Subbarayudu diverted Rs 15,000 (per year) the government offered for every mother of school going children to the private school.
Subbarayudu was not alone in bidding goodbye to a government school as a result of GO 117. The United Teachers Federation’s Kandukuri Suresh Kumar said as many as 4.5 lakh students switched to private schools.
Bouquets, then brickbats
Jagan achieved accolades from the rural parents when he converted all schools into English medium schools in 2019. To make these schools attractive, infrastructure was improved by fitting RO water purifiers, constructing decent toilets and improving the menu of the midday meal scheme. All these resulted in a jump in enrolment in government schools.
However, this was undone by restructuring of the schools per GO 117. Teachers’ unions vehemently opposed the move stating that the restructuring increased the number of single teacher schools and workload.
The chief minister ignored the complaints. It is believed that the teaching community’s anger contributed to the defeat of the YSR Congress in the 2024 elections.
Naidu’s reforms
Now, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu-led NDA government issued guidelines on January 9 to scrap GO 117. The government wants to create a new system in the name of NEP which will have five types of schools and bring back grades 3, 4 and 5 to primary schools.
It is widely feared that the new system, set to commence from 2025-26 academic year, will give another jolt as it is set to downgrade hundreds of upper primary schools into primary schools where enrolment is less than 30 in classes 6, 7 and 8 and upgrade the upper primary schools as high schools, where the enrolment in classes 6, 7 and 8 is 60 and above.
The government also intends to set up model primary schools in each gram panchayat by providing one teacher per class. The GO will do away with the ‘High School Plus’ system which was introduced by Jagan to ensure there is one junior college for girls in every mandal.
Jagan’s order junked
The system, however, failed as students did not favour studying intermediate in a school that had no college infrastructure.
In essence, the Naidu government wants to annul all the reforms initiated by Jagan between 2019 and 2024, barring the English medium. However, prominent personalities such as former CJI Justice NV Ramana and former vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu have opposed the ‘only English medium’ system in schools.
The proposed restructuring will have Satellite Foundational School (Pre-Primary-I and PP-II run by Women and Child Welfare Department), Foundational School (PP-I, PP-II, Classes I and II), Basic Primary School (PP-I, PP-II, Classes I to V), Model Primary School (PP-I, PP-II and Classes I to V) and High School (Classes VI to X).
Fears over new reforms
According to Hrudaya Raju, president of the Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Federation, one third of government schools in the state have a strength less than 20. The new reform should not spike this number, he said.
“Out of 44,570 government schools, as many as 5,520 have less than 10 students and in 8,072 schools the strength is below 20. We are happy GO 117 is on the way out. But the new restructuring should not make government schools unattractive,” he said.
Simple restructuring of schools ignoring the quality aspect won’t attract children to government schools, added A Chandrasekhar, a rights activist from Anantapur.
Why earlier reforms failed
“Jagan’s initiatives like English medium and improving the amenities did convince the people and improved the enrolment in government schools. But the lack of adequate number of teachers and single-teacher schools put paid to his aim of imparting quality education. So, parents shifted children to private schools. Naidu’s restructuring won’t create any impact if the vacancies of teachers are not filled,” he said.
Suresh Kumar, associate president of the United Teachers Federation, is sceptical of the new reforms. “Instead of reverting to the old system, the government wants to create a new system which is bound to increase single-teacher-schools with nominal strength. These schools will render both the teacher and parents unhappy."
New concerns
In Kumar’s view, these reforms look like World Bank-driven and are intended to cut the expenditure on school education. “The NDA government has decided to implement the ‘Talli Vandanam’ scheme to assist every school going child with Rs 15,000 per year in the family. If the restructuring is not parent-friendly, they take the money and admit their children in private schools.”
There are other worries too. Many teachers feel the reforms should not lead to more single-teacher schools and eventually close them down or merge them with others on the pretext of lack of student strength.