Mainstream WeeklyHon’ble Chief Minister,
Since assuming office as Chief Minister, you have repeatedly emphasised the need to place education at the centre of Telangana’s development. The establishment of an Education Commission, the breakfast programme in government schools, study visits to countries such as Finland, Japan, Germany and Vietnam, your decision to provide study leave to teachers to pursue higher education abroad, and your recent initiative to seek suggestions from teachers on educational reforms by treating the mandal as the basic unit—all these measures reflect a clear commitment to building a better education system for Telangana.
Yet history teaches us a simple but profound lesson. No society has built a great education system by importing another country’s educational model. Every successful country has built a strong public education system of its own. Telangana cannot simply import Finland. We cannot replicate Japan as it is. Nor can we copy Singapore.
What we can learn from these countries, however, are the fundamental principles that made their education systems successful. If Telangana wants to build a world-class education system, it should not attempt to reproduce foreign models. Instead, it should understand the principles behind their success and adapt them to Telangana’s own social, economic and educational realities.
With this objective in mind, I would humbly propose four fundamental reforms.
First Fundamental Reform — Build Strong Neighbourhood Government Schools
The foundation of every great education system in the world has been a strong network of government schools that enjoy the trust of the people. Public education becomes truly strong only when government schools are no longer seen as institutions meant merely for the poor, but as schools that families from every section of society are confident about sending their children to.
This raises a natural question: If the children of agricultural labourers, workers and economically disadvantaged families study in government schools, why should the children of ministers, MLAs, IAS officers, teachers, university vice-chancellors and others who draw salaries and enjoy the benefits of the public system not study in them?
This is not merely an administrative or political question. It is a question of educational justice and democracy.
The American educational thinker John Dewey expressed this idea with remarkable clarity:
“What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy.”
— John Dewey
In other words, the highest quality of education that thoughtful parents want for their own children should be something that society seeks to provide as a right to every child. A dual education system—one offering excellent schools to some children and schools with only basic facilities to others—is fundamentally incompatible with a democratic society.
That is why strengthening government schools is not merely a programme of the Education Department. It is a process of strengthening equality, social justice and democracy itself.
The experience of Dr R. Anand Kumar, then District Collector of Erode in Tamil Nadu, offers an instructive example. In 2011, he enrolled his daughter in a government school, demonstrating in practice how government schools could be strengthened. Following that decision, officials paid greater attention to school infrastructure, sanitation and teacher punctuality.
The example conveys an important lesson: when elected representatives, senior officials and middle-class families send their children to government schools, public scrutiny naturally increases. Infrastructure improves, teaching quality receives greater attention, and the government faces stronger public pressure to appoint and retain good teachers.
The Telangana government could take the lead in this direction by encouraging elected representatives and senior officials to voluntarily enrol their children in government schools.
In August 2015, the Allahabad High Court also made an important observation, suggesting that those who receive government salaries and benefits should send their children to government schools.
Whether such an idea can or should be implemented through law is a separate question. But the educational philosophy behind it is extremely valuable.
There is perhaps no more effective way of strengthening public institutions than ensuring that those who make decisions about them also have a stake in those institutions.
The recent NITI Aayog report, School Education System in India: Temporal Analysis and Policy Roadmap for Quality Enhancement, provides further support for this argument. The report makes it clear that Telangana’s educational challenge is no longer simply one of access to schools. It is increasingly about the quality of government schools, learning outcomes, student retention and digital preparedness.
It notes that although the state has improved English-medium education and infrastructure in government schools, public confidence in them has not yet been fully restored. It particularly points to the continuing movement of students from government schools to private schools in and around Hyderabad.
The report also draws attention to several continuing challenges: declining enrolment in 2,245 schools, the presence of 5,001 single-teacher schools, a 13.3 per cent dropout rate at the secondary level, digital inequalities in rural areas, uneven deployment of teachers, and shortages of laboratories, libraries and sports facilities.
At the same time, it points out that Telangana has the potential to become a national model for inclusive, technology-enabled public education if appropriate policy reforms are implemented.
These observations further reinforce the need for the four fundamental reforms proposed in this letter.
Second Fundamental Reform — Rebuild Teacher Education
No great education system in the world has been built merely by constructing buildings. Great education systems are built by professionally competent teachers who have the freedom, dignity and support to do their work well.
The best investment is not investment in concrete, but investment in people.
Every rupee spent on teacher education, educational research, academic freedom and continuous professional development produces returns that extend across generations. But for this to happen, we must first strengthen the institutions that prepare our teachers.
Unfortunately, teacher education colleges and university departments of education in our state have suffered neglect for many years. Faculty positions have remained vacant for prolonged periods. Research has weakened. Academic leadership has declined.
Institutions that are expected to prepare future teachers risk becoming centres that merely conduct examinations and award degrees, rather than institutions that nurture reflective, intellectually curious and professionally committed educators.
The recent decision to begin faculty recruitment in teacher education colleges is certainly welcome. But teacher education cannot be treated like an ordinary administrative recruitment exercise.
The process of selecting faculty who will prepare future teachers must be rigorous, scientific and transparent. Adequate importance must be given to research capacity, teaching experience, educational vision, pedagogical innovation and academic leadership.
After all, the quality of those who prepare teachers ultimately determines the quality of our schools.
History repeatedly teaches us this lesson. No country has built a great education system without first building outstanding institutions for teacher education.
Finland has developed research-based teacher education within its universities. Singapore has made teacher preparation and continuous professional development a national priority. Japan has cultivated a strong culture of professional learning among teachers within schools themselves.
In every successful education system, reform has not begun merely in the classroom; it has begun in the institutions that prepare and develop teachers.
If Telangana is serious about building a world-class education system, revitalising teacher education colleges and university departments of education must be among its highest priorities.
Third Fundamental Reform — Independent Educational Leadership
An education system cannot be run on administrative experience alone.
IAS officers undoubtedly have an important role to play in implementing education policies. But the educational direction of the system should be shaped by experienced teachers, educationists, child psychologists, curriculum designers, scientists and university professors.
Those who have a deep understanding of how children learn and how educational institutions develop must have a central role in guiding educational reforms.
Educational policy should not change direction every time governments change.
Education reforms must be conceived not in terms of an electoral cycle, but in terms of a generation.
Long-term educational goals require independent, expert educational leadership that can provide continuity, professional expertise and institutional memory.
Fourth Fundamental Reform — Give the Highest Priority to Rural Government Schools
Before expanding new parallel schooling systems, we must first strengthen rural government schools.
Every village school should become a centre of learning, culture, sports and community participation. It should have a good library and provide children with opportunities to explore beyond the confines of the textbook.
The quality of an education system should not be judged by a handful of elite schools. It should be measured by the quality of the small government school in the most remote village.
Hon’ble Chief Minister,
Every educational reform can ultimately be tested by asking one simple question:
Will this reform make every neighbourhood government school a good school?
And another:
Would a family from any section of society be willing to send its child to that school without hesitation?
If the answer is yes, then we can be reasonably confident that the reform is moving in the right direction.
Telangana does not need to become another Finland or another Japan.
We have an opportunity to build a “Telangana Education Model” of our own—one based on excellent teachers and high-quality neighbourhood government schools that command the trust of the people.
The success of educational reform should not be measured by the number of foreign study tours undertaken, the number of buildings inaugurated, the websites launched or the schemes announced.
The real test is much simpler.
The day an ordinary mother or father can walk confidently into the neighbourhood government school and say, “This is where my child should study,” that is the day we can say that educational reform has truly succeeded.
When that trust is restored, Telangana will not merely go down in history as a state that reformed its education system. It will be remembered as a state that built its future.
Strong government schools, excellent teacher education, independent educational leadership and the highest priority for rural schools—these are the foundations on which every successful education system in the world has been built.
If Telangana chooses this path, it can build a distinctive education model of its own and offer it to the world.
With respectful regards,
Adama Srinivas Reddy
(Adama Srinivas Reddy (sreevare13[at]gmail.com) teaches at the Kakatiya Government College (Autonomous) Kakatiya University, Hanumakonda, a Founding Member of the Society for Change in Education (SCIE), Telangana, and a columnist whose writings focus on education, public policy and social issues.)