TPF's Vidya Bus Yatra Ends at Gabbilalpet School, Calls for Public Education Revival
TPF's 12-day Vidya Bus Yatra concluded at Gabbilalpet Government School, with a badi nidra and round-table calling for public education revival and private school regulation.
The Telangana People's Front's (TPF) 12-day Vidya Bus Yatra, which toured districts from September 15 to highlight concerns in the education sector, reached its final leg on Saturday at Gabbilalpet Government School.
The TPF team interacted with parents and held a badi nidra at the school on Saturday night. The primary school at Gabbilalpet in Jawaharnagar, Medchal-Malkajgiri, functions from rented premises. It was secured through a sustained four-year struggle by parents and is the only government school serving an area population of around 50,000.
On Sunday, the TPF held a round-table discussion with students, activists and NGOs on the state of school education. Participants called for targeted measures to strengthen public education and to regulate the rising costs of private education.
Kavya, a first-generation learner from Jawaharnagar who completed her schooling at a ZPHS school, said children in the basti "must not grow up feeling like second-class citizens".
TPF member M.V. Reddy stressed that education enables individuals to reach high positions in society and said the All-India Services were not necessarily limited to candidates from elite backgrounds. On the demand for land for a Telangana Public School in Gabbilalpet, he said a negotiated solution must be found.
TPF member Champalal said education and healthcare were essential needs and termed it shameful that citizens continued to struggle for basic education 80 years after Independence. He cited Telangana Public School, Arutla, as an example of how government schools could provide full facilities and create opportunities for first-generation learners.
MV Foundation's Venkat Reddy said the proliferation of private schools was enabled by successive governments without adequate standards or regulation.
According to TPF leader and former Telangana Education Commission chairperson Akunuri Murali, school education is in dire need of revival. He said an additional allocation of ₹6,000 crore annually for five years would be a small portion of Telangana's ₹3.24 lakh crore annual budget, and called for a groundswell of demand from parents.