Hyderabad: A staggering 2.27 lakh fewer students went to school in Telangana in the current academic year when compared to the previous year.

The numbers are surprising in the context of enrolment going up in private schools by as much as 40 per cent in the state every year. However, government school enrolments are going down by 9 per cent annually.

After coming to power, the TRS government has been stressing on the importance of government schools and on the need to improve the quality in public schools. However, the government has been unable to arrest the slide in enrollment in public schools.

Enrolment in government schools has gone down by 9 per cent. At the same time, growth in private schools has been phenomenal with 40 per cent in enrolment. Despite this, as many as 2.27 lakh fewer students went to school in the state in this academic year.

Kalwakurthy Congress MLA C. Vamshi Chand Reddy said, “The first reason for decreasing strength is the increasing drop-out rate.” Senior officials in the School Education department added that one of the probable reasons for decreased school strength could be a slowing birth rate.

The fertility rate in erstwhile AP, fell from 2.1 to 1.8 over the last decade. “One of the reasons is that the birth rate in the state has been steadily declining, so lesser children are born,” a senior official of the School Education department said. Critics meanwhile say that despite the government’s verbal stance on regulating private schools, it has done little on that front. “In its manifesto, TRS had promised that its government would form a special commission with the objective of regularising fees in all private schools and improving quality of school education. But till now it has not done anything,” said Vamshi Reddy.