Focus on school education, Lok Satta urges Govt.

Even as it welcomed the Government providing opportunities for higher education to larger and larger numbers of students belonging to weaker sections, the Lok Satta Party today said the Government had failed to give equal importance to primary and high school education.

Talking to the media, party spokespersons Mr. Katari Srinivasa Rao, Mrs. K. Geetha Murthy referred to the Chief Minister’s claim that Andhra Pradesh topped all other States in its budget for higher education and said the Government was building an edifice without a strong foundation.

The Lok Satta leaders quoted the Annual Status of Education Report to point out that a large percentage of students up to Class VIII could not read a couple of sentences in their mother tongue or undertake simple division and subtraction of numbers. A survey conducted by the Lok Satta revealed that most of the schools do not have pucca buildings and in most schools classes are conducted in one or two rooms. Most teachers happen to be volunteers and most of the schools do not have drinking water or toilet facilities.

Primary schools witnessed a dropout rate of about 50 percent and the Tenth Class, about 38 percent.

The Lok Satta would like the Government to pay greater attention to primary and higher education through allocation of funds, construction of school buildings, provision of amenities and appointment of teachers.

The leaders pointed out that school students as also hostel inmates went without nutritious food because of the spiraling costs of essential commodities. They wanted the Government to enhance allocation of funds for schemes that enabled poor students to pursue their education.