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Even if the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) resorts to its characteristic political derision, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy will be remembered for generations if he sees through his envisioned reforms in the school education system. He made it unequivocally clear yesterday that he will not succumb to pressure from the corporate college lobby and is determined to overhaul the schooling structure. It is a welcome move—and precisely what the state needs.
In reality, the abolition of the Intermediate Board and the transition to a 7+4+4 schooling structure will not only curb dropout rates significantly, but also align Telangana’s framework with the schooling model across 18 other states and the National Education Policy (NEP). Furthermore, completing the 10+2 cycle within the school ecosystem and channeling students directly toward skill-building at Advanced Technology Centres (ATCs) or vocational institutions will help arrest the alarming 40 percent post-Class 10 dropout rate. Since girls and students from marginalized communities account for the vast majority of these dropouts, addressing this crisis is a pressing social imperative for Telangana. Revanth Reddy’s recognition of this reality is commendable, and pairing it with the introduction of the CBSE English medium is an equally vital contemporary necessity.
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Ideally, this transition should have begun last year. However, bureaucratic inertia—marked by senior education department officials failing to match the Chief Minister’s urgency and failing to execute the necessary groundwork—has caused a one-year delay. Under the revamped framework, the standalone ‘Intermediate’ course and its governing board will cease to exist. This reform was long overdue. Unfortunately, the previous BRS administration lacked vision, direction, and a coherent roadmap for the education sector; compromised by the influence of corporate colleges, it never even contemplated such structural changes.
Resistance from vested interests will persist, yet the Chief Minister must hold his ground. The government ought to dismiss baseless allegations that this move is driven by political vendetta to erase the legacy of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. These reforms are the outcome of rigorous study, and education policy must evolve in step with changing times and contemporary demands.
Under the new architecture, Nursery, LKG, UKG, and Classes 1 to 4 will comprise Primary School; Classes 5 to 8 will form Secondary School; and Classes 9 to 12 will constitute Senior Secondary School. While one Telangana Public School is already being established per assembly constituency, securing the proposed NABARD loan will facilitate the construction of 300 additional schools. When integrated with existing combined Junior College-High School campuses and Model Schools, every mandal in the state will effectively be served by a Telangana Public School.
Resolving the apprehensions of ITI, Polytechnic, and Intermediate staff through constructive dialogue is entirely manageable. With welfare measures such as free transport, breakfast, and mid-day meals already driving up enrollment in state-run schools, the successful execution of the Telangana Public Schools vision would represent the truest form of Vidyadaanam (the gift of education) for underprivileged families.
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