Allocate 18% of budget to education, citizens’ group urges CM | Hyderabad News

Hyderabad: The Telangana People’s Front (TPF) has urged chief minister A Revanth Reddy to allocate at least 18% of the state’s annual budget to education, enact a law to regulate private-school fees and strengthen existing govt schools through the Telangana Public Schools programme.In a letter to the CM on Wednesday, TPF, comprising academics, activists and former bureaucrats, said the education sector was under severe strain, with problems relating to infrastructure, teaching staff and quality of education affecting govt schools, junior colleges, degree colleges and universities. “Education in Telangana is in the ICU. It needs immediate clinical attention,” TPF representatives said in the letter.The demands followed TPF’s “Badi Kosam – Bus Yatra”, conducted from Sept 15 to 29 across the 10 districts of erstwhile Telangana. The organisation said it visited 20 govt schools and several private schools, interacted with parents, community elders and local representatives, spent nights at 10 govt schools under “Badi Nidra”, held 10 round-table conferences and conducted public meetings in 13 villages and urban settlements.TPF said the Congress’s 2023 manifesto had promised to raise education’s share of the state budget from 6.5% to 15%, while the 2026 allocation stood at 8.22%. It sought an independent Fee Regulatory Commission or equivalent statutory mechanism to regulate private school fees and curb arbitrary hikes.It also sought replication of the Telangana Public School model developed at Arutla across all mandals, with adequate teachers, infrastructure, laboratories, libraries, computer facilities, toilets, drinking water, sports and digital resources. TPF said the govt must undertake a “comprehensive, systematic and sustained transformation of the govt school system”.The group further demanded that spending on residential schools and Gurukul institutions under welfare heads not be counted towards the proposed 18% education allocation.