Visakhapatnam: Private schools fall short in basic facilities

Visakhapatnam: Private schools are supposed to be providing a better quality of education than neglected government schools, but a provisional report of the “Unified District Information System for Education” shows severe shortcomings in private schools. At a private school in MVP Colony in Visakhapatnam, students just mug up their lessons in cramped classrooms. The school day begins at 9 am and ends at 5 pm for junior students, but stretches past 7 pm for Class X students. Basic amenities such as a playground, library and science laboratory are unheard of in this school of 500 students.

In a private school run out of an apartment complex near Akkayyapalem, students are expected to study in dark classrooms. These are English medium schools and this is their attraction, but most have the bare minimum of infrastructure and teaching. Playgrounds, ramps, electricity, library, science laboratory, etc. are simply non-existent, says the report. There are about 15,530 recognised private schools in Andhra Pradesh. According to the report, about 65 per cent of private institutions don’t have a science laboratory, while 11 per cent don’t have desks and benches for pupils to sit on. Playgrounds exist only in the glossy brochures advertising these schools even though the Right to Education Act stipulates that schools must have a playground or take students to a nearby playground or municipal stadium.

Dr T. Sharon Raju from the Institute of Advanced Studies in Education, Andhra University, commented that there was no place for comprehensive learning or application-based training at the majority of private schools. “Introduced to rote learning from a young age, students lose their creativity and all-round development. It becomes very hard for them to succeed in research areas,” he added.

Andhra Pradesh Private Schools Association chairman, K.S.N. Murthy, insists that the majority of private schools do comply with the rules. “Slowly, things are settling at the private schools. Charging very modest fees, we are serving the students more than what we charge,” he said. L.V.V.L.N.S. Dora, headmaster of Vignana Bharathi EM School in Visakhapatnam, said that the government should clamp down on erring private schools.

“It would obviously increase the number of pupils at government schools, which have better faculty than the private schools. But before closing down the erring schools, the government should inform the parents to shift their wards to other schools,” he said.