Why did academics and activists sleep in Telangana schools | Explainer

The Vidya Bus Yatra was a 12-day tour of Telangana’s districts focused on the condition of government schools. It aimed to understand and highlight problems that may be missed by official reports. The effort matters because education spending has stayed at a single-digit share of the State budget for about a decade.

The Telangana People’s Front organised the yatra. Its members included academics, bureaucrats and activists. Akunuri Murali, a former IAS officer, had served as chair of the Telangana Education Commission. After his two-year term ended, he left the commission, took up education reform, and began the bus yatra.

The group visited schools and examined facilities, staffing and daily conditions. It also slept in some schools through the practice called badi nidra. The yatra’s findings are intended to mobilise parents and society and push the government to implement reforms, including higher education spending and shared school resources.

Badi nidra means sleeping in government schools at night. Members of the Telangana People’s Front used it during the Vidya Bus Yatra to experience school amenities directly, rather than relying only on records or daytime inspections. This mattered because facilities can appear available but fail in daily use.

The group could observe whether toilets worked, whether water was actually available, and how the school functioned after regular hours. A tap might be installed, for example, but not provide running water consistently. Sleeping in the schools made such gaps visible in real time.

The experience also exposed differences between UDISE+ data and ground reality. UDISE+ is updated almost daily for national ranking purposes, yet the yatra found that recorded facilities did not always function. The same concern appears in a UN report on school drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, which found that five crore Indian children lacked school sanitation services.

The 12-day tour revealed problems with basic school infrastructure. Some schools had no compound walls. Some taps had no running water. Toilets were locked or dysfunctional. In one school, children even wanted salt or jaggery to improve the taste of their ragi java, or millet broth.

The group also found poor resource management. Some schools had excess classrooms while others lacked enough rooms. Schools under the same Education Department did not always share barely functional facilities. In some places, children in multi-grade classrooms had little space and sat in verandahs.

Staff deployment was another major problem. One school had 10 teachers for 60 students, while another had 50 students and only two teachers. In the latter, one teacher was on long leave or absent. These conditions showed that infrastructure alone is not the issue; management, staffing and resource sharing also require reform.

Telangana currently spends 8.2% of its State outlay on education. The article says budgetary support has remained in the single-digit range for the past decade. The Telangana People’s Front wants this share increased to 18%, arguing that schools need stronger public investment.

The Telangana Education Commission proposed a six-phase plan to upgrade school infrastructure. The plan would cost ₹31,600 crores in total and would be spread across five years. It followed a 354-page report based on visits to 305 institutions in all 33 districts over 14 months.

The report also included four annexures containing draft Bills and a checklist for Telangana Foundation Schools. The proposed investment is intended to reinforce and rebuild the education sector. The People’s Front is now seeking public mobilisation and government action on these recommendations, including higher spending and shared facilities between schools.

UDISE+ data is updated almost daily for consideration of national rankings. The yatra found that these records did not always reflect schools’ actual conditions. A school may be recorded as having a drinking-water tap, for instance, even when the tap does not function reliably.

This mismatch matters because data guides how school performance and needs are understood. If a facility is counted merely because it exists, the record may hide whether children can use it. Similarly, reported infrastructure may not show locked toilets, unusable rooms or students sitting in verandahs. The article connects this gap directly to the group’s observations.

Policy decisions based on incomplete conditions can therefore miss practical problems. Resources may not reach schools with the greatest needs, and national rankings may present an inaccurate picture. Better alignment between records and daily reality would make planning, monitoring and reform more meaningful.

Sharing facilities means government schools would jointly use classrooms, playgrounds, laboratories and libraries. This could address the current imbalance in which some schools have excess rooms while others lack enough space. It would make existing public resources available to more children instead of leaving them underused.

The mechanism is cooperation across schools under the Education Department. A school with a usable playground or laboratory could share it with a nearby school. Schools could also coordinate classroom use and library access. The article says some heads do not want to share barely functional infrastructure, so management would need to support this arrangement.

The Telangana People’s Front estimates that shared resources and expanded facilities could reduce the cost per student from ₹1,10,00 to ₹55,000. It also expects children to gain access to better facilities. The proposal forms part of the wider call for higher education spending and systematic school reform.

Government funding shapes the basic conditions in which children learn. Telangana’s education allocation has stayed below 10% of the State outlay for about a decade, while schools still need classrooms, toilets, water, playgrounds and teachers. Without sufficient support, facilities may exist only on paper or remain poorly maintained.

Resource allocation also matters within the education system. The yatra found a school with 10 teachers for 60 students and another with 50 students but only two teachers. Some schools had excess classrooms, while others lacked rooms. Such uneven deployment can create sharply different learning environments for children in government schools.

Equal opportunity therefore requires both adequate funding and fair distribution. The Telangana Education Commission proposed a five-year infrastructure plan, while the People’s Front seeks to raise education spending from 8.2% to 18%. Sharing facilities could also widen access to playgrounds, laboratories and libraries and lower estimated costs.