With the dismal performance of government schools and several of them on the verge of closure following poor enrolment, educational authorities, including teachers and Mandal Education Officers (MEOs), have allegedly resorted to threatening parents to send their wards to government schools.

Telangana Recognised Schools Management Association State general secretary Y. Shekhar Rao alleged that government teachers and MEOs were “threatening illiterate parents that government benefits such as pension, ration cards, Aadhaar cards and housing scheme would be cancelled if they did not send their wards to government schools”. Mr. Rao termed such threats as ‘undemocratic’.

“Anyone has the right to study in any institution. Let government schools compete with their private counterparts by providing quality education,” he noted and questioned whether government teachers were sending their children to government schools for good education. He said that incidents of teachers threatening parents had been reported in Elkathurthy, Husnabad, Bheemadevarapalli, Yellareddypet, Gangadhara, Metpally, Kalwa Srirampur, Kathalapur, Mallapur, Medipalli, Odela, Bejjanki, Illanthakunta and other mandals.

A parent, Bhukya Jagan, of Kundanwanipalli hamlet of Husnabad mandal, said that government school teachers had threatened that welfare schemes would be stopped if they did not send their wards to government schools. But I had sent my children to a private school in Karimnagar town for quality English medium education as government teachers also send their wards to private schools.

Terming the incidents of threatening parents as unfair, TRTF district president M. Prathap Reddy said that teachers should convince parents about the importance of government school education. “But, they should not threaten them”, he added.

Stating that government teachers should not resort to such threats, District Education Officer Srinivasa Chary informed the private schools managements to give a written complaint so that he could conduct inquiry and take action accordingly.