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Uncapped, exorbitant fees in Telangana’s private schools and a weakening public education system are two sides of the same coin, the Telangana People’s Front said, demanding action from the state government on both issues. The organisation, comprising former bureaucrats, academics, and activists, held a public meeting on the state of school education in Telangana in Jawaharnagar, a suburb of Hyderabad, on September 27.
Concluding a two-week ‘vidya bus yatra’, during which its members visited government schools across Telangana, the organisation put forth three demands for legislative changes: pass the long-pending private school fee regulation Bill, bring in a law mandating Telangana Public Schools in every mandal to strengthen public schools, and also a legal mandate to allot 18% of the state’s annual budget for education.
The people of Jawaharnagar reiterated their demand for an integrated school for Classes 1 to 12 in Gabbilalpet, citing the lack of adequate schools in the area. Jawaharnagar, which houses Hyderabad’s main dumpyard, is home to many migrant workers, mainly from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and Backward Class communities.
Residents have been leading a campaign for a school that was sanctioned by the education authorities in Medchal-Malkajgiri district. However, the land allotted for the school remains under litigation, leaving many children unable to attend school.
Kavya, a first-generation learner from Jawaharnagar who is now pursuing graduation, said that while she managed to complete her schooling from a local government high school, the children of her neighbourhood deserve better schools and a better future. “They must not grow up feeling like second-class citizens,” she said.
Members of the TPF had spent the previous night at the Mandal Parishad Primary School (MPPS) Gabbilalpet as part of their badi nidra (night stay) observations at public schools across districts. The school operates out of a small rented space, and residents have complained that it has reached its full capacity.
Akunuri Murali, a former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and former chairperson of the Telangana Education Commission, said it was shameful that Gabbilapet, with a population of nearly 50,000, had only one primary school, operating from a rented space with “the tiniest classrooms in the world.”
He criticised the Congress government for not investing in public school infrastructure.
A model Telangana Public School was inaugurated in Arutla in June under the supervision of Akunuri Murali and Padmaja Shaw, retired journalism professor at Osmania University and both members of the TPF. The Arutla model school has classrooms with digital infrastructure, advanced laboratories, spacious dining halls, free transport, sports programmes, and other facilities. Members of the TPF said that three such schools must be established in each mandal in Telangana to adequately cater to all children in the state.
Padmaja Shaw said it was important to have integrated schools focused on early childhood education, stating that Anganwadi teachers were too overburdened to properly focus on foundational literacy and numeracy. She said that at the Telangana Public School in Arutla, every classroom has a teacher who has graduated in English medium, along with a childcare assistant, and stressed that this model must be replicated across the state.
While Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has said that one such school would be built in each of the state’s 119 Assembly constituencies, TPF called for around 2,000 such schools to be established across Telangana, with at least three schools in each mandal. Akunuri Murali said that, according to the Telangana Education Commission, each school would require around Rs 15 crore in funding. “Telangana’s annual budget is over Rs 3 lakh crore. We need 2000 such schools, which would need Rs 30,000 crore,” he said, calling on Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, who also holds the education portfolio, to sanction funds.
Telangana has 41,762 schools, according to the 2025-26 data from the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE Plus). Of these, 32% are private schools, but 65% of the state's nearly 77 lakh students from pre-primary to Class 12 are enrolled in these schools.
The proportion of students attending private schools shot up from 60% in 2023-24 to 65% in 2025-26, even as the number of private schools declined by more than 1,100.