Hyderabad: The Telangana Education Protection Committee on Saturday demanded that chief minister A Revanth Reddy immediately withdraw his announcement that the state’s 27,000 govt schools would be reduced to 4,000, warning that the move would shut 23,000 schools serving children from the most disadvantaged sections of society.The demand came at a round table conference held in the city, attended by academics, political leaders, teachers and student organisations.Committee president Prof K Chakradhar Rao, who chaired the meeting, said the announcement was unacceptable. “All govt schools in the state should be developed and quality, equal, free education should be provided to everyone by the govt itself,” he said, demanding that 20% of the state budget be allocated to education.General secretary Prof G Haragopal called the CM’s statement deeply troubling. “For a human society to be built, there should be a govt school in every village,” he said, pressing for an immediate withdrawal.Prof Madabhushi Sridhar said the proposed closures had no legal standing. “The announcement of closing 23,000 schools is against the Constitution and the Right to Education Act,” he said, adding that the committee would fight for constitutional rights in court if necessary.MLC Prof Kodandaram said he would back the committee’s agitation. Prof D Narasimha Reddy demanded the CM’s “Future City” slogan be replaced with “Future Schools”.Executive secretary Prof K Lakshminarayana announced that the committee would submit memorandums to public representatives across the state on June 15 and 20, followed by district-level round tables through July 15.
