Employees children are only 50 percent

VIJAYAWADA: The five-decade-old railway high school is facing existence crisis owing to poor patronage from parents. With the announcement of fee reimbursement scheme, railway employees are sending their children to private institutions. Established in 1961 and located at the Loco colony, the English medium school has celebrated its golden jubilee last month. There are about 400 students now.“Earlier 95 per cent of the admissions were given to the children of railway employees and the remaining seats to outsiders. But now, half of the strength is outsiders,” said Swamy Charan, divisional secretary of South Central Railway Mazdoor Union(SCRMU).Admissions to 1st and 2nd standards had already been stopped and the school is set to be closed soon. Speaking to the Express, Venkata Subbaiah, divisional secretary of South Central Railway Employees Sangh (SCRMS), said the fee reimbursement scheme is a reasons for the poor patronage. “The railway ministry is cutting down expenditure on non-core activities. Hence, the closure of schools," Swamy Charan said. There were 60 teachers at the school earlier. Recently, about 25 teachers were shifted to other departments. The Telugu medium railway high school at Satyanarayanapuram was closed a decade ago.