Telangana: School education
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Education, level of
2012-18
SYED MOHAMMED, More Muslims enrolling for higher education in Telangana, August 1, 2018: The Hindu
From: SYED MOHAMMED, More Muslims enrolling for higher education in Telangana, August 1, 2018: The Hindu
HRD Ministry’s survey finds dip in the case of other minority communities
While the enrolment of Muslims in institutes of higher education in Telangana rose by 22% over a period of five years, enrolment of other minorities such as Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and Parsis dropped by around 17%.
These were the observations of the All India Survey on Higher Education released by the Ministry of Human Resources Development. While the enrolment of students from the Muslim community in 2012-13 stood at 89,524, it rose to 1,09,240 in 2017-18. On the other hand, the number of students enrolled from other minority communities was 11,920 in 2012-13; the number fell to 9,866 in 2017-18.
Analysing the data, former Head of Strategy and New Initiatives, Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, Prof. Amir Ullah Khan said that greater access to education, as compared to previous years, in the State had led to the increase in enrolments. He said that enrolment in institutes of higher education was linked to a larger number of schools – both government and private — being opened.
New schools
“The spurt in new schools, including residential schools for minorities and private schools, has led to an increase in enrolment. These schools are acting as feeders for institutes of higher education,” Prof. Khan said.
Touching upon the drop in enrolments of students belonging to other minority communities, Prof. Khan said that students reached nearly full enrolment in the last decade or so, sometimes crossing 100%, as they were enrolled in multiple institutions. “Hence the enrolment rate has now slowed down as there is a correction. The Muslim minority has now got access to schools in their neighbourhood and in their medium of instruction. This is the reason for the late catch-up,” he said.
The survey revealed that there have has been lesser enrolment of Muslim women as compared to men. While 3,44,173 men were enrolled from 2012-13 to 2017-18, the number of women enrolled stood at 2,77,202 in the same period. The report said that data was based on ‘voluntary uploading of data by institutions’.
Initiatives to promote girls' education
2017/ "grooming kit" for girls
In what is being seen as a New Year gift for students of Kasturbha Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV), the State government has decided to provide quarterly grooming kits to them starting January 1.
A decision to this effect was taken by Director of School Education and ex-officio State Project Director of Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan (SSA) G. Kishan, on Saturday. In a circular to all DEOs and project officers of SSA, barring Hyderabad and Medchal, Mr. Kishan said the kits would replace the existing practice of granting ₹100 monthly stipend towards purchase of grooming and make-up items from the New Year.
There are 12 KGBVs in the district.
Each kit would include four bath soaps, two detergent soaps, 24 shampoo sachets, a 175 ml hair oil bottle, a comb, 50-gm face powder box, 100 gm toothpaste tube, a set of tooth brush and tongue cleaner, a packet of stickers (tilak), two nylon ribbons of 2.5 metres each, two elastic hair bands, 18 branded sanitary napkins, a 180 ml handwash bottle and a mosquito repellent.
The monthly stipend of ₹100 granted for buying cosmetics and personal grooming was found to be insufficient for the underprivileged girls studying at KGBVs.
The DEOs and SSA POs have been instructed to launch the distribution of cosmetics kits on a grand scale by inviting elected representatives including MPs, MLAs and representatives of local bodies. The district authorities are expected to conduct the launch in a day or two as the consignment has not reached them so far.
Recently, the Government had announced introduction of mutton curry in the menu of KGBV students and introduction of various breakfast items and evening snacks.
Students teach their juniors
Telangana has found a novel, though controversial, way to bridge its shortage of school teachers. It wants to engage students informally to teach their juniors in some of residential schools, while teachers observe and advise them.
The experiment will be carried out in classes 5 to 9 at two residential schools run by a society for marginalised students, particularly those from Dalit communities. The youngest teacher will be a class 6 student and the eldest will be from class 9. These student-teachers will also set question papers. Called ‘green gurus’, they will be tasked with teaching kids one class junior.
Class 9 students will have no ‘green gurus’ as the students who enter Class 10 will start preparing for the board exams. The experiment — named ‘Freedom School’ — will be conducted in schools run by the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society. This is perhaps the first such experiment in India with students of a regular school.
The experiment will be put in action in 2019-20 in a boys’ and a girls’ school. “In most of our schools, teachers encourage students to teach. This has created a large pool of student-teachers,” said R S Praveen Kumar, secretary of the society. He said that if students have doubts they can get in touch with their teachers too.
“We have a pool of 80 students, some of who will be ‘green gurus’. They have already been teaching in schools where there is a shortage of teachers,” Kumar said. The children will be paid Rs 3,500 as incentive. The Freedom Schools will also have a reduced studentteacher ratio of 20:1. Other schools run by the society have a 40:1 student-teacher ratio.
Initially, the project will have 320 students, along with nine teachers and one principal. Kumar said the ‘gurus’ will have subject strengths and will be selected on the basis of their overall performance, including teaching. The official said these students have get training to teach for a week every month.
