VIJAYAWADA: Putting to rest the row over surrender of staff in aided colleges, the state government has said that not a single aided institution, be it schools, junior colleges or degree colleges, will be closed. Education minister Adimulapu Suresh said the state government took the decision on aided institutions in a bid to improve the public education system.
The minister said, “Though welfare schemes like Amma Vodi, Vidya Deevena, and Vasati Deevena are made available even to those studying in aided institutions, the enrolment rate was not satisfactory and the system failed to deliver results. The government had set up a committee to study the situation. Based on the report, chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy placed three options before these institutions; either voluntarily withdraw grant-in-aid status, or hand over the assets to the government or run them as private institutions.”
Of the 133 degree colleges, 125 managements, almost 93 per cent, have come forward to surrender either their grant-in-aid status or staff to the government. About 5-7 institutions have agreed to give their assets along with staff to the government.
Similarly, out of 122 junior colleges, 103 have come forward to withdraw their grant-in-aid status and five institutions have voluntarily agreed to hand over their assets to the government along with staff. As far as grant-in-aid schools are concerned, 1,276 have agreed to withdraw their status and 100 schools have agreed to hand over the assets and staff to the government.
The minister said if anyone can’t run their institution, the department will run it as a government school. He assured no school will be shut.
“The problems of contract lecturers were ignored by the previous government, but the current government will take steps to provide job security to them. We have constituted a committee to study the possibilities,” he said
