· KCR destroyed the education sector in Telangana in the last 8 years: Shabbir
Hyderabad, November 11: Former Minister & ex-Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir has strongly condemned TRS Govt for not celebrating the birth anniversary of Moulana Abul Kalam Azad, freedom fighter and the first education minister of India, at the official level.
“It has been proved once again that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has no respect for freedom fighters and national leaders, especially if they belonged to the Muslim community. It is highly shameful that TRS Govt did not celebrate the 134th birth anniversary of Moulana Azad at the official level although it is celebrated as National Education Day. CM KCR did not even issue a press release to pay homage to Moulana Azad,” Shabbir Ali said in a media statement on Friday.
Shabbir Ali said that the previous Congress Govts used to celebrate the occasion at a grand scale to spread the ideology and teachings of Moulana Azad among the people. He pointed out that the then Congress-led UPA Govt, on September 11, 2008, decided to mark the birth anniversary of Moulana Azad by celebrating National Education Day on November 11, every year. Since then, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has celebrated National Education Day to highlight the contribution of Moulana Azad in the education sector. At the State level, Congress Govt used to organize Minority Welfare Day wherein the District Collectors were directed to address the problems of minorities in their respective district.
However, he said TRS Govt never gave any importance to Moulana Azad and it never celebrated either the National Education Day or the Minority Welfare Day as KCR never showed respect for Moulana Azad. He pointed out that TRS Govt did not include the picture of Moulana Azad in the official advertisements when it celebrated 75 years of independence this year.
“Moulana Azad wanted every Indian to get modern education. He emphasised adult education and literacy. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in 1951, the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and other premier institutions. He also set up the University Grants Commission in 1953. He strongly advocated women’s education and also enforced free and compulsory primary education for children up to 14 years of age. He was a visionary who had sown the seeds of modern education by establishing institutions like the IITs,” he said adding that a person like KCR, who destroyed the education sector in Telangana, could never understand or respect the personality like Moulana Azad.
Shabbir Ali alleged that KCR Govt has completely ruined the education sector in Telangana. “KCR came to power in 2014 on the promise of giving free KG to PG education to all. But he destroyed the government institutions by depriving them of funds and required staff. Telangana is at the bottom of 29 States in terms of annual spending on education. TRS Govt has shut down over 4,000 government schools in the name of rationalisation and other reasons. More than 30,000 teachers’ posts are still vacant while over 90% of residential schools have no building of their own and other facilities,” he said.
The Congress leader also accused TRS Govt of playing with the careers of over 12 lakh students by not clearing the Fee Reimbursement dues of about Rs. 3,270 crores to nearly 3,600 junior, engineering, degree, pharmacy and other professional and non-professional colleges. More than 850 Junior Colleges, 350 Degree Colleges, 150 PG colleges and hundreds of engineering, pharmacy and vocational colleges have shut down their operations since 2014. Nearly 30% of SC, ST, BC, Minority and EWS students dropped out of Higher Studies due to non-clearance of Fee Reimbursement dues. Almost 90% of minority institutions have shut down ever since TRS came to power in 2014. As against 53 minority engineering colleges in 2014-15, there are now just eight colleges. Nearly 1.30 Lakh students belonging to minority communities have discontinued their higher studies due to the non-release of Post Matric Scholarships (MTF) and Reimbursement of Tuition Fees (RTF), he pointed out.
He said that the recent report of the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) of the Ministry of Education for the year 2020-21 has exposed the poor status of government schools in Telangana. Quoting statistics from the report, Shabbir Ali said that of 43,083 government schools in Telangana, as many as 9,655 (22.41%) have no functional girls’ toilets and 13,946 (32.37%) have no functional boys’ toilets. There is no functional electricity in 4,163 (9.66%) schools while 11,367 have no playgrounds and 1,978 (4.59%) have no drinking water facility.
On the occasion of National Education Day today, Shabbir Ali advised CM KCR to do an introspection on how the education sector has gone from bad to worse in the last eight years.
