Even before the official launch of the “Badi Baata” programme for students’ enrolment in government schools, the enrolment drive under the slogan “Mana Vooru Mana Badi” (Our village Our school) has already been taken up in schools of various districts.
All schools will re-open on June 12 and the State Government had announced the Badi Baata programme from June 14. Private educational institutions, on the other hand, have launched their enrolment drive by visiting villages and promising sops to students on a par with corporate schools.
Fearing that parents would be lured by private schools’ sops like English medium education, government school teachers started their door-to-door campaign along with local elected representatives like sarpanches. They distributed pamphlets to villagers about the facilities provided by government schools.
Social media help
A campaign was also launched via social media (Whatsapp) highlighting the results of students from government schools and facilities provided. In some villages, teachers were found urging the elected representatives to join their wards in government schools and set an example for others. Government schools also started English medium classes to attract the rural population.
Odyaram village sarpanch M. Sampath had joined his two daughters and the son of his close relative in the Zilla Parishad high school. The sarpanch along with teachers had been touring the village informing people about the importance of education in government schools. He said that the ZPHS had started English medium education from Class VI onwards and told villagers to join their wards to not get lured by private schools in Karimnagar town.
ZPHS Odyaram headmaster Enugu Prabhakar Rao said that they had been convincing villagers about English medium education to increase the enrolments.
“We are telling them about how government schools are providing free and quality education to children, compared to private schools.”
He added that they were ensuring that no student dropped out of school.
