Parents are urging the state government to take over the DWAB school and open a boarding school for visually impaired students in the building.
Published Date – Mon 09 Jan 23 at 05:15pm
Visually impaired students joined their parents in holding up chants calling for officials to intervene and reopen their schools.
Nalgonda: More than 30 students from a private school for the visually impaired run by the Development and Welfare Association for the Blind (DWAB) performed dharna at a district rally on Monday to protest against school closures affecting their education. Visually impaired students joined their parents in holding up chants calling for officials to intervene and reopen their schools.
Nama Kushal, a student in Class V at the school, said he attended a school for the blind in Class I. About a month ago, DWAB management abruptly informed them that the school was closed for maintenance due to lack of funds. With this, his parents say, their education is now in a dilemma.
Alluri Lokesh, a Class IX student who has been studying at the school since the first standard, told Telangana Today that there are 72 visually impaired students studying at the school and 50 of them attend classes regularly. The school administration closed the school, citing lack of funds and increased expenses. “The DWAB directors stated that it would only be economically viable for them to operate the school if the number of students exceeds 100. The two-storey building was built from donations received by DWAB for visually impaired students built and operated a school, but now it has been leased to a private university by its directors,” he explained.
Parents are urging the state government to take over the DWAB school and open a boarding school for visually impaired students in the building.
DWAB secretary-general Chokka Rao tried to blame the state government, saying they were unable to run the school because the state government did not issue the same allocation this financial year, which created several financial hurdles. He claimed that the funding proposal is still awaiting approval from regional tax collectors. However, he could not elaborate on why the school building for the visually impaired that he had donated to build was now leased to a private university.
Meanwhile, the students and their parents submitted a statement to District Collector T Vinay Krishna Reddy who assured that their concerns would be looked into and necessary action would be taken in this regard.
