After a gap of six months, nine-year-old Lakshmi (name changed) of Bangaramma Kandriga village, the temple town of Tirupati district, is getting ready to go to the school nearest to her village. He and 15 other students from classes 3 to 5 have missed half a year of schooling following the state government’s latest round of school restructuring and mergers.
In this academic year, the nearby village school was reorganized and merged with a school in Siddamanaidu Kandriga Panchayat, about two and a half kilometers away. Since parents refused to send their children to Siddamanaidu Kandriga’s school, citing long distances and poor road conditions, especially for children below 10 years of age, students have stopped attending the designated school for about six months.
Over the past few days, after repeated appeals by parents and the village community, a teacher for classes 3 to 5 was unofficially assigned back to the village school. However, this arrangement is entirely temporary and informal, and its duration is unclear, according to a school official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Since the children are attending this informal setup while their official registration is at Siddamanaidu Kandriga School, they will be treated as absent,” the person cited above said.
The school of Siddamnaidu Kandriga Panchayat is designated as a model primary school – defined by the State Government as a primary school located in a village panchayat or municipal ward, with at least 60 students in classes 1 to 5, and one teacher for each class. In contrast, the school in Bangaramma Kandriga village, which earlier ran classes 1 to 5, was downgraded to run only classes 1 and 2 this academic year, while classes 3, 4 and 5 were merged into the Siddamanaidu Kandriga School.
Concern in the entire village
The concerns raised by Lakshmi’s family are shared throughout the village. Gundam Venkatesh, a 28-year-old resident of Bangaramma Kandriga, who has filed several petitions with the district administration, says the primary school has been serving the village since the 1990s. There are about 50 children in classes 1 to 5 in the village; About 15 study in private schools, while about 34 study in government schools. Of these, 16 are in classes 3-5, with the group now asking to be shifted to the model school.
“At the beginning of the academic year, the government informed us that the school would be restructured,” says Mr Venkatesh. Under the new plan, classes 1 and 2 were retained in the village school, which was run by a single teacher for less than 20 students, while classes 3-5 were shifted to the model school, which has one teacher per class. He says, “But that school is very far. We asked the government not to do this.”
Villagers say that to keep their school running till Class 5, they contacted parents who had enrolled their children in private schools. He urged these parents to enroll in the government school, especially since the building was modernized with ₹16 lakh in government funding in 2020-21. “The parents also agreed,” says Mr. Venkatesh, “but still, nothing worked.”
“During this academic year, after seeing their children sitting at home and not being sent to school, at least three parents tried to enroll their children in a private school,” says Mr Venkatesh. “But the private school management told the parents that the names of the children were shown to be still enrolled in the government school, hence they cannot be admitted.”
The model school to which the children were appointed did not meet the standards expected from it. “According to the government’s plan, the model school should have five teachers,” says the official. “But right now, it has only three. And of the available classrooms, only one is in good condition, the other is in bad condition.” There is only one toilet in the school, which is shared by both boys and girls, he said.
“Our request to convert this school back to a basic primary school is still pending with the administration,” Mr Venkatesh said.
counting the days
Although students in some areas are now facing longer distances due to mergers and restructuring, other schools that previously had substantial enrolments, are now reduced to only a small number of students. Some have already closed and some are about to close.
Durga (name changed) goes to primary school in Tatiparthi village in the coastal district of Kakinada. A student of Class 2, she is the only child present that morning; Two children enrolled in Class 1 are absent. Sitting alone in an empty classroom, Durga appears clearly disinterested or at least bored. Just a few years ago, his classroom was full of friends. The school itself is housed in a building that has served the village since independence.
According to a school official and villagers in the district, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the school had 68 students from classes 1 to 5 in 2021-22. But when the government reorganized the schools and shifted classes 3, 4 and 5 to the high school, about 60 children moved out, some to private schools and the rest remained in the government high school. The number of nine remaining students further reduced, leaving only two children by the end of the same academic year.
Villagers here say they are “counting the days” until the schools close. Jayakar Pillai, president of Andhra Pradesh United Teachers Federation (APUTF) in East Godavari district, says the trend is widespread. He explains that running the school with only classes 1 and 2 makes it difficult to maintain enrolment. He says, “Most village schools have a handful of children, sometimes only ten, sometimes even less. After classes 3, 4 and 5 were shifted, some children continued to go to government model schools, but many went to private schools.”
Furthermore teachers in the state argue that the government is placing the blame on low enrollment within the community rather than examining how repeated rounds of restructuring have driven families away from government schools. Furthermore, a teacher points out that during the YSRCP tenure, the state had implemented the Amma Vodi scheme, and under the current TDP-led NDA government, it continues as Thalliki Vandhanam. Teachers say that private schools are actively taking advantage of this financial incentive. Under both versions, each mother gets about ₹13,000 per year for each child enrolled in a government or private school from classes 1 to 12.
The teacher said, “Private schools in the nearby town are convincing parents to transfer their children, even offering transport. They ask parents to simply deposit the Amma Vodi or Thaaliki Vandhanam amount at the school. Since parents do not have to spend anything extra, many feel it is easier to choose private schools.”
At least three villagers in Tatiparthi village repeated the trend. All of them said that after the merger they had withdrawn their children from government primary schools and instead enrolled them in private institutions. He admitted that he relies on the ₹13,000 deposited under the scheme to cover fees and believes that private schools offer “better quality” and transportation.
a blame game
Both parties have been blaming each other for the condition of primary schools. In 2023, under the YSRCP government, Andhra Pradesh adopted a school rationalization/merger policy in line with the National Education Policy (NEP). As per state policy, primary schools were limited to classes 1 and 2, while classes 3, 4 and 5 were shifted to nearby high schools. According to the state government data, more than two lakh forty three thousand students from about four thousand eight hundred primary schools were mapped to about thirty three hundred upper primary and high schools as part of this restructuring.
However, after the TDP-led NDA coalition government came to power, the structure was once again modified. Under the new order, classes 3, 4 and 5 were brought back from high schools to a designated primary school in a nearby panchayat, which was reclassified as a “model school”. The remaining primary schools were allowed to run only classes 1 and 2.
In both cases, the state has moved away from the earlier primary school structure and continued the NEP-aligned restructuring and merger policy.
According to UDISE data, Andhra Pradesh has seen a decline of about 4% in the number of government schools between 2014 and 2024, while the number of private schools has increased by about 7% over the same period.
