New School Syllabus in Telangana

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has given his consent to bring radical changes in the school syllabus by giving due credence to Telangana history, art, culture and literature. The changes in the syllabus were advised by the experts committee set up by the State Council for Education Research and Training (SCERT) which suggested that chapters about the history of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh should be replaced with that of Telangana history, culture, architecture, art and literature.

With the CM’s consent, the text books of Class I to 10 would have the syllabus designed by the state authorities from the coming academic year 2015-16. The changed syllabus would have couplets and poems of native poets of Telangana besides historical, architectural and artistic parts of Telangana. The new syllabus proposed long ago, is awaiting CM’s nod for its implementation. 

However, after a recent meeting held at Secretariat attended by state government’s cultural advisor N V Ramana Chary, SCERT director S Jagannath Reddy and other officials from school education department, the proposals were discussed at length before sending them to the chief minister.

The history books would also include the history of Telangana dating back to the induction of Hyderabad State into the Indian Union and all the major events up to the formation of Telangana. History of movements during Nizam’s government, Hyderabad’s merger, first democratic government, agitations pertaining to Mulki rules, role of Osmania University students, 1969 Telangana movement, 1972 Jai Andhra movement would be included in the history. 

Interestingly, the syllabus of Social Studies also includes the details of State Government’s schemes pertaining to tanks and ponds (Mana Vuru Mana Cheruvu) and this aspect also occupy a significant space of the syllabus. Major breakthroughs during the Telangana movement were also made the part of syllabus. Meanwhile, the Telugu Desam criticized the TRS government and alleged that KCR was busy in incorporating his own history in the name of Telangana history. TDP spokesperson N Narsi Reddy said that almost 1,200 students have sacrificed their lives for the cause of Telangana.

Undermining students’ sacrifice and omission of the participation of poets, artists and other people’s version in Telangana history was shameful, he said. Reddy said that history would not forgive people who were indulging in praising the Chief Minister K Chandra Sekhar Rao while ignoring the actual martyrs of Telangana.

In Pursuit of Better Remuneration

The demand for enhancement of remuneration by evaluators of Intermediate and SSC examination papers is gaining strength for quite some time now. After the recent protest by Intermediate examination evaluators at a spot evaluation center in city, teachers too have also put forth their demands for enhancement of perks. In case of Intermediate paper, the authorities were able to quell the demand tentatively, but school teachers have already given their list of demands and asked the government to enhance their remuneration. 

-The authorities were able to quell the demand tentatively, but school teachers have already given their list of demands and asked the government to enhance their remuneration. Evaluation for the Intermediate examination papers has been going on whereas the spot evaluation for SSC examination papers would commence on Saturday at two major centers in the city.
-“We had called for a strike from April 2 to 6 but in vain and called off the strike in the larger interest of the students. However, we will continue to put forward our demands”

Evaluation for the intermediate examination papers has been going on whereas the spot evaluation for SSC examination papers would commence on April 11 at two major centers in the city. Private Lecturers Organization of Telangana (PLOT) president G Narasimha Reddy who is on a fast demanding enhancement of remuneration said that out of the total number of evaluators, about 80 per cent of them were private junior lecturers. He said that private lecturers have been working on meager allowances and perks for the evaluation. 

“We had called for a strike from April 2 to 6 but in vain and called off the strike in the larger interest of the students. However, we will continue to put forward our demands,” he informed. Reddy is on a hunger strike at Pragathi Mahavidyalaya campus where the spot evaluation is going on. The evaluation for Intermediate examination papers is being conducted at five different centers in the city. On the other hand teachers and teacher unions are also demanding that the perks must be enhanced. 

Teacher organizations argue that after the implementation of Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE), teachers would have to take more strain while correcting answer sheets. Telangana Teachers’ Federation president A Ramchandram said that since the examination pattern was new, evaluators must also be provided with increased remunerations accordingly. Evaluation for the SSC examination papers would commence from April 11 at two centers in city. One is at Secunderabad and one at Dilsukhnagar. 

At the same time, teachers have also demanded for early payment of evaluation remuneration unlike the usual practice. State Teachers’ Union state secretary Abdul Samad said that generally teachers don’t get their remuneration on time. He said, “authorities take our bank account numbers, but do not credit the remuneration on time. It takes some five to six months for remuneration to be credited into our account.” He said that TA should also be increased for teachers who come from long distances to the spot evaluation centers.

RTE Implementation in Abeyance

 Both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh continue to lag in implementing the Right to Education Act (RTE), despite its enactment five years back. Even basic requirements for the implementation of the Act have not been met by the two states during the past five years. When the state was not bifurcated, several teacher unions, education activists and student unions approached the state authorities to implement RTE, but they could not achieve any breakthrough.

The Act was intended at providing education to school drop-outs, students from poor families including SC, ST, minorities and other backward communities. As per the norms of the Act all the state governments were mandated to provide basic education to the children aged between 5 to 14 years. The law also mandated the private managements to allot 25 per cent of the seats for poor students.

Interestingly, the deadline for the proper implementation of the Act was March 31, 2015, in the moral book of the Act in the year 2010 when the RTE was enacted. However, so far the implementation of this Act is on the backburner in many aspects. Accordin to Right to Education Forum’s state convener Ch Murali Mohan, a survey conducted by the forum revealed that percentage of RTE implementation in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is only 9 per cent. 

He said, “It is disgusting for both the states that such a meager per cent of implementation is recorded.” He said that as per the analysis of 2011 census analysis by the UNICEF, it was revealed that Hyderabad had highest number of child labors in the state. City has 80,000, Ranga Reddy district has 75,000 and Mahabubnagar district has about 68,000 child labours, he said. He criticised the Telangana government for not giving any importance to such an important act and said that one can file PIL against the state as the RTE was a mandatory compulsion on the state governments.

Telangana government instead, has been talking about KG to PG scheme for education but allocated only Rs 25 crores in the previous and current state budget, he said. Interestingly, the previous united AP governments have stonewalled the implementation by showing the deadline of March 31, 2015 and now Telangana government shirking its responsibility by saying that it does not have data and was new into the power.

It was learnt that the Telangana government had sought six months’ time from the Centre to implement the Act completely but there was no communication from the Centre has been reported in this regard.
He said Telangana government appeared to be not keen on this issue and argued that the number of teachers was more than students and needed rationalisation. 

PRTU president P Venkat Reddy said that the Telangana government utterly failed in the implementation of RTE in many aspects. The state government was failed especially in curbing the corrupt practices of collecting huge amounts as donation and capitation fees by private education institutions.

Facts and Figures
1.Right to Education Act was approved in Lok Sabha on July 2, 2009.
2.It was passed in Rajya Sabha on July 20, 2009.
3.It came into force from April 1, 2010.
4.RTE has completed its five years on April 1, 2015.
5.Moral book of act says that all the states would be having appropriate framework to implement RTE by March 31, 2015.
6.Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states lag behind in implementation with only 9 per cent.
7.A survey was done in 20 states with 50 government schools in each state shows that implementation of act was thrown to the winds.

Encountering these people would be justified!

Muslim community elders have demand state government and police officials to take serious action against people indulging in facilitating contract marriages of poor girls from Old City with foreign nationals. The religious leaders have also condemned the rising number of such marriages in the city and held the constitutional agencies responsible for such incidents. 

The recent incident, in which an Omani national went into contract marriage with a minor girl in the city, was facilitated by a local Qazi and travel agent. Generally, these agents lure foreign nationals by offering brides from poor families that too for a certain period and earn huge money from them. The agents also convince the poor parents by promising them huge remuneration before performing ‘Nikah’ for avoiding legal glitches.

Lack of check on such marriages is leading to contract marriages, thus exploitation of the young and poor girls in the city. Tameer-e-Millat Secretary Maulana Abdul Raheem Qureshi said that the root cause of these incidents was greed for quick money. He said that the government should take pro-active role in curbing the activities of middlemen and Qazis who perform such marriages. He lamented, “the middlemen and irresponsible Qazis are responsible for exploitation of poor families in the name of marriages.” 

They have made the institution of marriage a joke and tool of exploitation. It is a matter of serious concern that despite of strict laws people who facilitate go undetected, he added. In the past, people from West Asian countries used to marry women from Hyderabad and provided them a graceful life in their respective countries. However, for past ten to fifteen years it has been seen that marriages of city women have become a mere ‘business deal’ he observed.

As per the existing laws, foreign nationals marrying local women must inform the government authorities and possess permission from their respective governments. Since they do not possess any document, they prefer to contact middlemen for ‘contract marriages’. Noted Islamic scholar Mufti Sadiq Mohiuddin observed that such incidents of exploitation were occurring frequently due to lack of proper implementation of laws that have been formulated to keep a check on such marriages.

He said, “Laws and regulations must be implemented strictly and then only we can expect to save people from being exploited by opportunists in the community.” He advised the community members not to fall prey to the allurements of middlemen.On the other hand police officials say that they have taken all possible steps to stop these kinds of incidents in the city. 

DCP South Zone V Satyanarayana said that police officials have even booked Qazis under the PD Act and opened history sheets, but in vain. He however said, “There has been a fear among middlemen and people indulging in fake marriage. The menace has not been completely controlled. Educating poor families and young girls is the need of the hour.”

Chancellors for Each University

The State government is mulling several amendments to the State Universities Act in order to work on its proposals of appointing chancellors for each university in the State. The government wanted to streamline the functioning of all the State universities and strengthen the academic activities carried out in each university. Currently, the State governor is acting as the chancellor for all the universities as per the provisions of State Universities Act. 

According to government officials, senior academicians, professors and experts in education would be appointed as chancellors of the varsities. The government wanted to streamline the functioning of all the State universities and strengthen the academic activities carried out in each university

Universities with Chancellors
-Kaloji Narayan Rao Health University – Chief Minister is Chancellor
-Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technology (RGUKT) - Raji Reddy is Chancellor
-Nalsar Law University- Chief Justice of High Court Kalyanjyoti Sengupta is Chancellor

Universities without VCs
-Osmania University – Hyderabad
-Kakatiya University -Warangal
-JNTU- Hyderabad
-Dr B R A O U- Hyderabad
-Palamur University-Mahabubnagar
-Telangana University-Nizamabad
-Prof Jayashankar Agricultural University

Universities having VC
-Mahatma Gandhi University -Nalgonda
-Satavahana University-Karimnagar

The Chief Minister is the chancellor of Kaloji Narayan Rao Health University, the chief justice of High Court is chancellor for Nalsar Law University and academician A Raji Reddy is the chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technology (RGUKT). According to officials, senior academicians, professors and experts in education would be appointed as chan cellors of the varsities. 

The government was acting on the reports submitted by officials that almost all the universities in the State were reeling under several crises which includes academic disturbances, groupism among faculty members and students, flutters created by student groups and other issues. Telangana Higher Education Council vice chairman S Mallesham said that the issue was at a preliminary stage, and no direction has been issued by the government. 

However, he said that other states in the country have separate chancellors for state universities. He said, “In Telangana, few universities have chancellors and this is not a surprise. Efforts are underway to appoint vice-chancellors for universities in existing vacancies.” The government is keen on appointing chancellors, an advisory post with five years fixed tenure.

Private Travel Agencies Exploit Haj Pilgrims

 Private travel agencies in Hyderabad are fleecing Haj aspirants every year in lakhs by taking advantage of the large number of seats allocated to them by the central government. The dream of luxurious travel and completion of Haj by private travel agencies is gradually turning in to a nightmare for pilgrims, who have chosen their services over the government-supported Haj facilities through the Haj committee.

“Private travel agents don’t provide proper food, accommodation and travel facilities which they promise in their advertisements or before leaving for Haj.”

In most of the instances, proper facilities are not provided to pilgrims as promised before leaving for Haj, and are left to fend for themselves in the foreign country despite paying huge money. The private agencies attract these aspirants with ‘beautiful’ promises and under different categories like deluxe, super deluxe and so on. Private agencies are charging about Rs 3 to 4 lakh from each pilgrim and in some cases the charges are as high as Rs 4.5 lakh for each pilgrim.

On the contrary, the charges for pilgrims who go for Haj through the state Haj Committee remains is between Rs 1.60 and Rs 1.80 lakh for similar arrangements and facilities. One of the victims of private tour operators is the Officer on Special Duty Elections Faheem Saberi who went for Haj last year with his spouse. Explaining his ordeal, he said that they paid Rs 3.5 lakh per head for Haj, but whatever promised to him was not provided.

He said, “Private travel agents don’t provide proper food, accommodation and travel facilities which they promise in their advertisements or before leaving for Haj. We were forced to live in a congested hotel room in a 14-storey building with only two lifts.” Declining to reveal the name of the tour operator he said that he has written a complaint letter to the Ministry of External Affairs to look into this matter and come to the rescue of people who are being exploited.

He said, “It is the right time that the central government decreases the quota for private agencies and increases the pilgrims’ quota to the state Haj committees in the country.” The central government has allocated 40,000 slots for pilgrims to the private travel agencies across the country and agencies of the state bagged around 2,300 slots this year. On the other hand, the state haj committee was allotted 2,700 slots out of which only 1,223 seats were left open for draw this year. The remaining seats come under reserved categories. 

About 15,000 people have applied for the mere 1,223 slots for Haj 2015 and 12 persons are vying for each seat. Another victim of the private travel agencies Mumtaz Ahmed a retail businessman said that it was his worst decision to go for Haj by a private agency last year. He claimed to have paid Rs 4 lakh for Haj and expected luxurious arrangements by the agency. He said, “The facilities provided by the private agency were not even close to the facilities provided by the Haj Committee of the state.”

Charges under Private Agencies
-Private Agencies charge Rs 3.5 to Rs 5 lakh per head
-Poor facilities and don’t keep the promises
-Take the pilgrims by cheap airlines as against the promised one of Saudi Airlines
-Promise food but don’t provide proper food at right time
-Pilgrims are left in lurch during Haj rituals

Requirement for the Travel
Agency license
-Labor License issued by state government/municipal authorities
-Trade License issued by municipal body
-At least three years’ experience in Haj pilgrims’ service
-Should have turnover of Rs 1 crore per annum in air travel service
-Should deposit Rs 25 lakh in the Ministry of External Affairs
-Trained staff

Rationalization of Schools in Telangana

The State government has decided to modify GO No.6 intended to ‘rationalise’ government schools across the State from the next academic year, though certain unions of teachers had expressed apprehensions that schools having poor student strength would be eventually closed down. The GO No 6, released in September 2014, was kept in abeyance, following protests by teachers unions. 

The State government has since decided to introduce some changes in the instructions given under the GO No 6, before going ahead with the rationalisation plan. The earlier instructions laid down benchmarks for allowing government-run primary and high schools to function. It was decided that high schools with less than 75 students and primary schools with less than 20 students should be closed down and such students sent to other nearby school.

Inspections in the previous year revealed that about 300 high schools and 2,000 primary schools would come under the axe, going by the parameters set by the State government. However, after fierce opposition from teachers’ unions, the State government stepped back on this issue earlier. The issue of rationalisation of schools and teachers is again under discussion as the demand for DSC has been increasing for some time now. Director and Commissioner of School Education T Chiranjeevulu said that currently the GO was not being implemented.

However, it could come into force with some changes after the current academic year. He declined to speak on the changes that would be made to rules under the GO No 6. The Telangana Teachers Joint Action Committee (TTJAC) has alleged that the State government wanted to shut down State-run schools in the name of ‘rationalisation’. The TTJAC chairman, P Venkat Reddy, said that the government should instead increase facilities for rural students so that they could reach the school. 

The government should see how many private schools were being run in the same locality or village. “The government should rationalise private schools before preparing to close government schools. Each village must have a public school,” he said. He said that the fall in the number of students at government schools did not happen overnight, but over a period of time because of the official apathy and neglect by successive governments.

Representatives of teacher unions also argue that shutting down any government school was against the Right to Education Act (RTE) and Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.