By Mohd Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad: Urdu-medium educational institutions in the state are facing extreme threat of getting extinct in the very near future, as nearly 50 Urdu medium residential schools in Andhra Pradesh are now chosen to be converted into English medium schools.
Government of Andhra Pradesh [AP] had started a plan called “Successes”, by which it intends to start around 6500 CBSE English medium schools, to facilitate the growing number of student ratio in the state. But the government seems like not having any infrastructure facility to carry out such a huge blueprint, so they have now started converting already fragile Urdu medium institutions into English medium. Within the past 10 years, government has closed down about 40 per cent of such schools/colleges and now approximately only around 1,000 such institutions remain in AP.
The explanation provided by the government for converting these schools to English medium is that, the students are least willing to join such schools. But the fact is that the government is showing huge impartiality in providing assistance to the Urdu medium schools and so the dwindling popularity of the medium as alleged by the government is the result of lack of proper attention paid to the Urdu educational sector. The lapse from the part of government is well evident as there were many instances of the Urdu medium schools being shifted to just a four room house.
The governmental axe is all set to fall on three Urdu-medium colleges as well – the Residential Junior College, Barkas (Hyderabad) and the AP Residential Junior Colleges at Guntur and Kurnool.
The explanation given as usual is that there are only a fewer percentage of students attending this colleges. But the often neglected fact is that, the state government had increased the bar level requirements for entry in to these Urdu-medium residential colleges. They introduced entrance tests in 2006 and from then on the number of students kept descending. People have shared their opinion that, the solution indeed was to provide further assistance and support rather than closing down such already fragile institutions.
Government of Andhra Pradesh had issued a Governmental Order [GO] MS76 for right to education; its 21st section insists on not shutting down the government schools. But with this the government seems like violating its own orders.
Chanchalguda High School built during the time of the Nizam, is symbolic of the pathetic condition of eminent schools of the past era. The nearly century-old aesthetically built structure’s façade has been badly damaged due to lack of attention and adequate support from the government.
Schools like Urdu Shareef School, City High School and Chaderghat High School had enjoyed a period of glory until 1960s and are now lying in ruins. The Urdu Shareef School which was earlier spread over an area of two acres has now been shifted to a four room house near Fateh Darwaza. The student strength is down to a meagre 150 odd from 700.
Hyderabad had the history of being the centre of Urdu education in Andhra Pradesh, but at present there is not even a single school with adequate infrastructure facilities. The Government is actually trying to shrug off from its constitutional responsibility by not taking care of this public institutions and instead moving forward with steps to wipe off the Urdu Educational sector. The state government is thus violating article 29 and 30 of the constitution, under which minorities are given special rights regarding their education.