The Executive District Officer, Education, Abdul Majeed, has said that the over-staffing and ghost teachers, mostly appointed on political considerations, are yet another problem adversely affecting the quality of education in government educational institutions.
Giving a brief to the newly elected district government members he said that there are 1046 educational institutions, from primary to college level, engaged in imparting education to 200,837 students in Hyderabad district.
He said that this figure includes 116,599 boys and 84,238 girls. The number has increased considerably following the government policy to facilitate the likely dropout students.
He said the teaching staffs of both girls and boys educational institutions number around 11,720 in the district.
He said that for the current academic year a sum of Rs 1344.078 million has been earmarked, which includes development budget of Rs 27.947 million.
He said hat the work on 36 on-going schemes was in progress at estimated cost of Rs 69.980 million, while 37 new schemes have been proposed at an expenditure of Rs 28 million. Besides, an additional amount of Rs 16.830 million has been allocated for maintenance and repair works.
He claimed that at present Hyderabad was at the top among the 129 districts of the country in academic activities.
He said during his tenure, 18 closed schools in Taluka Hyderabad were made operational under ESRA Programme, but there are still many villages where schools are closed and their buildings are in the possession of influential people of the area--for years together.
The District Nazim directed the district education department management to conduct an extensive survey of all educational institutions, with particular reference to closed schools and ghost teachers, to streamline the education system in the district.
He said it had been observed that teachers who failed to impart quality education in government schools were found giving excellent performance in private schools, after retirement, even on meagre salary.
He said that due to apathy of teaching community in government schools, people were looking towards private schools, and added that this had created a wide gap between haves and have-nots.
He said that to restore confidence of the people and protection of government institutions was a challenge for both the teaching community and the district government. He said as such the district government is planning to change the system by taking reformatory steps to increase capacity building of the schools and improve their system.
He asked the EDO Education to prepare a comprehensive plan for providing lacking facilities of staff, equipment, electricity and drinking water at each school of the district. He further directed to evolve a system of Taluka-wise transfer and posting in such a way that all schools should have proper staff, and low-paid teachers should remain within their taluka.
He directed that 'supervisory system' be made more effective, and surprise visits be conducted to ensure attendance of teachers in schools.