Education
At the time of formation of Andhra Pradesh it was assured that disparities in the levels of development in different regions of the state, including the field of education, would be removed in five to ten years time. But even after 47 years the literacy rate in Telangana continues to be lowest in the state.
This has happened because of uneven distribution of educational facilities in different regions of the state. A region-wise breakup of facilities available at the crucial levels of education is given here under. The important point to be kept in view in this regard is the percentage of population spread over different regions of the state, i.e. Coastal Andhra 41.69%, Rayalaseema 17.77% and Telangana 40.54%. This is necessary to assess the adequacy or otherwise of the facilities of education created vis-à-vis the size of population and the levels of literacy achieved.
Primary Education:
The data chosen for this analysis pertains to the year 2001- the latest made available by the government. During this period there were 60,60,394 students in the state enrolled in the primary schools run by the government, local bodies and private managements (aided and unaided). The region-wise breakup is: Coastal Andhra 27,57,269 (45.50%), Rayalaseema 13,02,673 (21.49%), Telangana 20,00,452 (33.01%). It should be realized that unaided primary schools do not reflect endeavor of the government, and if such institutions were not taken into account the position would be much worse in Telangana.
Collegiate Education:
Regarding the facilities available for collegiate education (degree colleges) the position is more or less the same. If the salary component paid to the teachers is taken as the basis for assessing the spread of these facilities between different regions of the state, Telangana’s share in the total expenditure incurred by the state government would be 37.85% in respect of government colleges and 21.59% in respect of aided colleges.
Private colleges getting grant-in-aid from the government are playing a crucial and dominant role in the realm of collegiate education in the state. The state government has been admitting year after year several private colleges into grant-in-aid.
As could be seen the share of Telangana continues to be lowest, i.e. less than 20% in the total quantum of grant-in-aid. All this is happening inspite of the claim of the government that it is trying to remove disparities and do justice to Telangana.
Universities:
It is very often argued that all the state-level and national-level universities located in the capital city belong to the Telangana region. If it were to be so what benefit this region has derived from their location in Hyderabad? Atleast what percent of staff recruited by these universities belongs to Telangana? It is not even 10%. Further, some of the state-level and national-level universities are located in the other regions of the state as well, but none in Telangana districts. The details are as under:
There are six universities, two in each of the three regions, with their jurisdiction restricted to the regions concerned.nThe Osmania University, however stands on a different footing because of its location in the capital city and also for historical reasons. The imposition of Six Point Formula has, in a way, nullified its regional character.
In addition to the six universities with regional jurisdiction there are seven more universities with their jurisdiction over the entire state. None of these universities is located in Telangana districts. Of these seven universities, the University of Health Sciences is located in Coastal Andhra, the Women’s University and University of Dravidian Languages are situated in the Rayalaseema region. The other four universities, i.e. Agricultural University, Technological University, Open University and Telugu University are in the capital city. Agricultural and Technological Universities have campuses and colleges in the Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions as well, but no such campus or college exists in Telangana districts.
It may be recalled that the Technological University was actually started in Warangal but was subsequently shifted to Hyderabad under the pretext of locating all state-level universities in the capital city. Similarly, the Open University was orginally launched at Nagarjuna Sagar in Nalgonda district but was later shifted to Hyderabad again under the pretext of locating this state-level university in the capital city. There are two more institutions of higher learning, deemed to be universities namely the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences and Sri Venkateshwara Institute of Medical Sciences. The former is in the capital city and the latter is at Tirupati in the Rayalaseema region. In addition, a Sanskrit University funded by the government of India and Satya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, a deemed university in private sector, also are in the Rayalaseema region.
There are three more institutions in the capital city that are fully funded by the University Grants Commission. They are: The Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, The University of Hyderabad and Urdu University. The University of Hyderabad established in the year 1975 is an offshoot of the Six Point Formula. The primary objective of establishing this university in Hyderabad was to augment the facilities of university education to compensate, atleast partially, the loss sustained by the Telangana region under Six Point Formula. But no one, neither in the government nor in the university, seems to remember this fact of history and thereby the very purpose of starting this university has been defeated. Today the University of Hyderabad is as good -or as bad- as any other central university in the country in so far as giving preferential treatment to any particular region in matters of admission of student and recruitment of staff is concerned. Consequently, out of 21 universities and university-level institutions funded either by the state government or the federal government or self-financed, 3 are located in Coastal Andhra districts, 7 in Rayalaseem districts, 10 in the capital city and only 1 in Telangana districts.
Location of a university in a district place facilitates and contributes to the development of that area. For instance, the University of Health Sciences has considerably improved the medical facilities in and around Vijayawada city, besides providing employment opportunities to the locals. Similarly the University of Dravidian Languages has changed the very face of Kuppam village in the Rayalaseema region. No one grudges this. But the question is as to why the Telangana districts are deprived of such facilities. When Technological University and Open University were shifted to Hyderabad from Warangal and Nalgonda the reason given was to locate the state-level universities in the capital city. But the same logic is not applied in respect of University of Health Sciences, Women’s University and the University of Dravidian Languages. They too are state-level universities.
Development of education affects, and in turn gets affected by, the pace of economic development. There is a bi-directional linkage, and in this process the low rates of literacy and economic backwardness sustained each other. This is precisely the problem of Telangana.
Courtesy:
TELANGANA MOVEMENT
The Demand for a Separate State
- By Prof. K. Jayashankar