Opposing the proposed school restructure programme by the government as part of reforms in the education sector, leaders of the Andhra Pradesh United Teachers’ Federation (APUTF) on Thursday hit the road demanding withdrawal of the related Circular 172.
The federation held a State-wide protest demanding that the government drop its plan to merge Classes 3, 4 and 5 in high schools in the name of implementing the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020.
They said, contrary to the Education Minister’s assurance that the NEP would be implemented only after discussing the key issues with all the stakeholders, the officials of the Department of School Education were engaged in making arrangements for merger of Classes 3, 4 and 5 in the high schools.
They said the move was against the clause in the Right to Education Act that children should have access to primary schools within a distance of 1 km. The different timings and teaching levels of the primary and high schools might cause inconvenience to the primary children, they said.
Increasing the distance of the schools to 3 km might result in school drop-outs, especially among the girl students, they cautioned.
They suggested that instead of dividing the primary schools, the government should establish a primary school in every village, comprising pre-primary education along with Classes 1 to 5. A teacher should be appointed for every class, besides a headmaster, they added.
‘Withdraw Circular 172’
Reiterating their demand for withdrawal of Circular 172, they said any decision in this regard should be arrived at only after the issue was discussed with all the stakeholders.
The UTF leaders said close to 15,000 teachers and more than 11,000 parents in 659 mandals across the State participated in the agitation.
