Hyderabad: At a time when many govt schools in Telangana are staring at closure due to dwindling enrolment, a community-led initiative in Ranga Reddy district has helped significantly boost admissions at the Zilla Parishad High School (ZPHS) in Kollapadakal village, with nearly 100 students joining during the ongoing admission season.The turnaround has been driven by villagers addressing a key challenge—transportation.Realising that the lack of reliable transport was a major deterrent for parents from neighbouring villages, residents of Kollapadakal in Maheshwaram mandal raised funds to procure two school buses worth a combined Rs 50 lakh. Led by the village sarpanch, the initiative brought together contributions from private companies, local well-wishers and sarpanches of neighbouring villages to provide free transport to students attending the govt English-medium school.The buses now ferry students from eight neighbouring villages to the school at no cost.“Both the buses have started ferrying students from June 30. We are sending a bus to a village even if there is only one student,” Kollapadakal sarpanch Chepangi Praveen told TOI.Students travel between 3 km and 6 km from villages such as Subhanpur, Dubbacherla, Dilwarguda, Akanpally, Gattupalli and others to attend the school.The initiative was conceived after village leaders noticed that many parents were opting for private schools in and around the mandal, paying annual fees of nearly Rs 50,000 despite the presence of a govt school in Kollapadakal.Parents say the free bus service has now addressed their biggest concern.“Earlier, only private school buses used to enter our village. Now, even my daughter gets to board a bus from the village itself. It makes us very happy,” said Javeed Ali of Dubbacherla village, whose daughter studies in Class 7 at the govt school. He said that when children depended on RTC buses earlier, they spent considerable time commuting because services were often delayed.Another parent, P Hanumanthu, who shifted his daughter—now studying in Class 9—from a private school to the govt school a few years ago due to high fees, said the bus service has ensured that his child attends classes regularly.“Before the bus service was introduced, one of us in the family had to forgo our daily wage, or the children had to skip school whenever it rained because there is a lake (cheruvu) between our village and Kollapadakal. During heavy rains, the water flow was strong and children often slipped and got injured. Now, we are no longer worried about their safety,” said the farm worker.Villagers said the initiative began with a rented bus in 2025.“Though the rented bus helped increase enrolment by about 40 students, we ended up spending nearly Rs 1 lakh every month on rent, salaries, maintenance, fuel and other expenses. So, this year, we approached a few companies and convinced them to donate two new buses for the school,” said villager N Narsimha.He added that sarpanches of villages such as Dubbacherla and SB Palli also extended financial support.While the buses have been procured through donations, villagers continue to bear the recurring costs of fuel, maintenance and staff salaries. They are now actively looking for donors to help sustain the initiative in the long run.
