The Andhra government's plan of 'strengthening school education' may have adverse effects as around 9,000 primary and upper primary schools are reported to be facing the threat of closure in the next few months.
Quoting sources, the Times of India reported that the state planned to condense the existing three-tier system into a two-tier set-up by removing the upper primary level. In the existing system, primary schools (Class I-V), upper primary (Class I-VII) and high schools (up to SSC) are run by the government as well as local bodies.
The proposal as of now, is that the government would merge the upper primary schools to the nearest high schools or downgrade it to primary schools, on claims that it would improve student-teacher ratio,
However, critics claimed that this would only increase drop-out rates as economically backward families would chose to opt out before the upper primary level.
"It is a ridiculous move. It will only lead to a more dangerous trend of increase in the number of drop-outs," MLC Boddu Nageswara Rao told TOI.