Regional disparities in the realm of Education: The A.P. Scenario
Prof Mr. K.Jayashankar (Former Vice-Chancellor, Kakatiya University)

Deep distrust among the people living in different regions of the state has all along characterized the first linguistic state of India, the State of Andhra Pradesh. This phenomenon is the inevitable consequence of the regional imbalances in the levels of development perpetrated during the last forty years and likely to be continued in the future as well. In such a situation, the people become a anxious more about the problems of bread and butter while the issues concerning linguistic unity and cultural affinity hardly matter.

The Telugu-speaking people living not only in the Telangana region but also in the Rayalaseema region always had doubts about getting a fair deal in the then proposed state called Vishalandra. The periodic recurrence of unrest and consequent efforts to pacify the people by foisting pacts, agreements, accords, formulae etc., bring this distrust to the fore. The Sri Bagh Pact of 1937 aimed at infusing confidence in the people of Rayalaseema was almost still born in its effect. The Gentlemen's Agreement of 1956, which was an assurance of fair play given to the people of Telangana to facilitate the formation of Andhra Pradesh, was scuttled the very same day on which the state was born; ironically enough, by the very same 'Gentlemen' who were signatories to the agreement. The All Party Accord, the Eight Point Formula, the Five Point Formula-the supposed panacea expected to heal the wounds inflicted by the, massive Telangana agitation of 1969- never really worked. The Six Poin! t Formula, a counter prescription to meet the situation created by yet another upheaval in 1972 - the Andhra agitation-further eroded the confidence of the people of Telangana in the political leadership, irrespective of the party it belonged to and irrespective of the region it hailed from. All these exercises ultimately turned out to be futile as they were at best attempts to treat the symptoms rather than the malady. Distrust, therefore, continues to persist.

The objective of this paper is to present a comparative account of development achieved in one of the vital sectors i.e., education. The sources of data are the reports compiled, or published by the state government and other official agencies.