Government school becomes top ranker

Nellore: It is not often that a government school gets so full up that it has to turn away candidates with a ‘No Admissions’ signboard. But KNR Municipal Corporation High School at Baktavatsala Nagar in Nellore has had to do this to students from Class VII to X as it lacks the space and the requisite number of teachers. The strength of Class X this year is 220, with pressure on the headmaster to admit 20 to 30 more students. This is the second time in re-cent years that the school, which offers both Telugu and English me-dium teaching, closed admissions — except for Class VI.

One of the reasons for it being in so much demand is its pass percentage in Class X, maintained with unusual consistency over the last eight years. N. Lokesh, a student from the school, secured a Grade Point Average of 10 in Class X, while the pass percentage in 2016 was 85. Credit for this goes to the teachers’ commitment despite the fact that their number is no match for the student strength of 1140. “Our reputation for paying special attention to students in the classroom is a reason for parents making a beeline for our school while the steep increase in the fee structure in private schools is a factor too,” headmaster M. Vijaya Prakash Rao said.

The school is short of 19 teachers in Physical Science, Telugu, Natu-ral Science and English. Mr Rao has been managing the show by hiring Vidya Volunteers, especially for Classes IX and X during the last three months prior to the board exam. M. Ramakrishna, an insurance surveyor, said that he shifted his two sons to KNR High School because of politics being played in the giving of marks in the corporate school where they were earlier besi-des the fact that it had no qualified teachers and imposed a heavy load of homework and never ending hours of study on the children.

He is glad that both his boys had now made it to national level Yoga competitions even while excelling in studies, obtaining a 9.8 and 9.7 GPA respectively in Class X. He felt that the pressure put on children in corporate schools was making them inflexible and suppressing their latent talents. Headmaster Rao has appealed to the Nellore Corporation to fill the vacant posts to enable the school to live up to parents’ expectations and develop the school as a model for others in the state.