Telangana teachers fudged for fear of transfer to far-flung schools

Hyderabad: With the threat of government schools with low student headcount being merged with bigger units looming over their heads, teachers and managements have resorted to fudging enrolment figures, the education department claims.

During a surprise check, Ranga Reddy collector M. Raghunandan Rao shortlisted five students who were shown as new admissions in the government primary school in Lakshmiguda. He took note of their residential addresses and sent mandal educational officer C. Bhupathi Rao, who had accompanied him, to check out the truth for himself.

The MEO visited the houses of five students and found that all five had taken admission in private schools. On receiving this information, the collector initiated stringent action and asked the DEO to suspend the teachers who were manipulating figures. 

The inquiry revealed that the teachers enrolled even those children who had taken admission in other schools, with the plan that they would show them as dropouts after a month. 

This way, they would show higher enrolment in government schools in the beginning of the academic year to escape action and later show them as dropouts.

An official of the education department said, “ The teachers resorted to this act as they feared transfer. If the school had to be merged with a bigger school, many of them would be redundant and therefore transferred to far-flung places. This fear led them to fudge figures.”