Vijayawada: While most people baulk at admitting their wards in government schools, some state-run high schools in Vijayawada literally turn away aspirants as they have has no seats left.
Named after freedom fighter and AP’s first Chief Minister Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu, the school at Satyanarayanapuram displays a ‘Admissions closed’ signboard prominently at this time of the year.
The AKTP Municipal Corporation High School is also the biggest state-run school in the state, with 29 classrooms and 40 teachers, and a total strength of 1,707 students this academic year.
Boyapati Sivarama Krishna High School at Moghalrajpuram and Govindarajulu Dharma Eanam Trust High School at Patamata too are much in demand from parents.
The AKTP High School was established in 1951 and celebrated its diamond Jubilee in 2011 on completing 60 years of its inception. With no extra classrooms to facilitate new admissions and having takin in more than its capacity of 1,040 students this year, the school displays the ‘admissions closed’ board.
For the past few years, parents are making a beeline for this school and more often than not, carry letters of recommendation from politicians, officials and media, but they still find it tough to get a seat for their wards.
The secret is the commitment of the teaching staff of this school.
The NCC Unit overseen by T.V.S. Prakash and sports training by physical director B. Sulochana compliment the hard work of the teachers. They conduct special classes on Sundays and festivals for SSC students and also every evening.
Meanwhile, the main problem faced by the schools is the shortage of space for classrooms. The existing 28 classrooms means that 50-60 students have to adjust in each of the 30 sections from Class VI to Class X.
Despite the 18 teacher posts and one assistant headmaster post remaining vacant, the quality of teaching is top class. The sweepers were taken back by the municipal authorities last year.
Headmaster S. Srinivasa Rao said that the huge demand for admissions is a matter of pride and a testimony to the hard work by the teachers. He regretted that the school cannot take in more students due to lack of space.
He said that the government is distributing textbooks free of cost and some donors give away notebooks to help the children. Since the school is achieving more than 90 per cent pass percentage it is able to attract students from even middle and upper-middle-class families, Mr Srinivasa Rao said.
He said that if the number of classrooms and teachers increase, it could help the dedicated students to achieve targets.
He said that C. Sowmya one of the students of the school, bagged the runner’s up trophy in National Handball tourney.
