There is quite a bit of political action in Andhra Pradesh but in the midst of all that, news of putting entrance examinations in abeyance came as a huge surprise to me. This year entrance examinations for admission to residential schools have been put on hold as the Central Govt. ordered State Education Department not to have entrance examinations citing that the entrance examinations for primary education violate 2 specific acts - "The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act", 2009 and "Commissions for Protection of Child Rights",2005. Act in full can be downloaded from here. For 653 schools in the state that admit near about 50000 students, the entrance examinations have been put on hold. Central Govt. argues that the entrance examination at that level (Std IV and Std V) is restricting education to a few and the act outlines that the education should be Free and Compulsory to all.
Great visionary, Mr. P V Narasimha Rao brought about a legislation in 1972 to form the Andhra Pradesh Residential Educational Institutions (APREI) Society , which is an autonomous body with State funding. The State Government started 3 schools under the society and then expanded to 2 schools per district, one for Boys and other for Girls. Also, there have been so many reserved schools for backward classes added in recent years. Caption for schools under the society was "Thamasoma Jyotirgamaya" (Enlighten Darkness). The concept of the school was taken from "Gurukulam", schools in epic stories in ancient India, where in students and teachers lived together away from civic life.
I myself studied in a state sponsored Residential School from Std.V to X and I feel tremendously proud to have got admitted to a school like that at an early age and in the process avoided all the burden my parents would have had to carry otherwise in providing resources for such quality education. Those were tough times for my parents financially and they worked hard day in and out and I am certainly happy that I did not add much to their daily struggles. We had two levels of entrance examinations, one at the Mandal level and other at District level for getting admitted into residential school. Students of Std IV and V can take the entrance examination. Only 36 best students made it to the Class V and another 36 students, who ranked best in Std. VII exams in the district took admission into Std. VIII.
State funds these schools and state should be given full freedom to choose how they want to admit students into these schools and administer the schools. What role does centre have in state sponsored schools? Some Govt. officers are of the opinion that they should pick students randomly and fill the classes. How outrageous is that? The quality of education is not just because of the school system but the students in themselves and if students are picked randomly, it would make sure that the quality of education is degraded to the education levels as that of Govt. High schools. State Govt. spends lot of money on providing accommodation, food, sports equipment apart from education for students admitted in these schools and randomization is just silly and foolish.
Centre administers Jawahar Navodaya Vidayalayas across the country and I am eager to know what they do with admissions into those schools. I wonder how something this significant slip away from being reviewed by some intellectuals before making it public.
Hope, Central Govt. amends the act or leaves this decision to state education department so that the status-quo is maintained. It has worked out well for many years and the schools have produced thousands of successful students across the state and it is no time to mess with this.
Update -- News today is that the examinations are canceled. This is done 6 days before the examinations. I would not have survived this kind of a shocker in my 4th Std. and I feel for all those kids. This is just crazy and I am just mad at those officers, who made this possible.
I read through the act and gethered some news items that indicate the cost of implementing this. It is just mind blowing. 34,000 Cr. per year and 12 Lakh more teachers, just for samplers. Teacher's recruitment in Andhra Pradesh has always been political and this is just a way for Congress to systematically destroy the nation and still gain the votes to win elections.
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