Reddy questioned Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s government over the decision to shift pupils from the Tribal Welfare Residential School in Visakhapatnam and criticised police action against opposition leaders who tried to meet protesting parents. Former deputy chief minister Pushpa Sreevani and former minister P Balaraju were among YSRCP leaders detained on Tuesday while attempting to reach the protest site.
The controversy centres on the government’s decision to use the Marikavalasa boys’ residential school campus for a Centre of Excellence aimed at preparing Scheduled Tribe students for competitive examinations including NEET and IIT-JEE. The Centre is being run with specialised coaching from Physics Wallah, selected through a bidding process.
The government says the new facility will accommodate 600 Intermediate students, divided equally between MPC and BiPC streams, with 300 boys and 300 girls selected on merit. Tribal Welfare Department officials have presented the scheme as part of a broader plan to establish six Centres of Excellence for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Backward Class students.
The dispute, however, has focused less on the coaching programme itself than on the manner in which existing schoolchildren were moved. Parents and tribal organisations have alleged that hundreds of pupils studying in Classes 6 to 10 were shifted during the academic year, disrupting their schooling and separating some children from familiar teachers and surroundings.
Tribal Welfare Minister Gummadi Sandhya Rani has rejected allegations that the students’ education was jeopardised. She said 445 pupils were shifted in phases to nearby welfare institutions and maintained that the transfers were arranged without interruption to classes. According to the minister, 411 students had resumed studies, while protests involving 34 students and their parents had continued.
Andhra Pradesh Tribal Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society secretary M Gauthami has also disputed claims that the campus was vacated without preparation. She said parents had been informed beforehand and that students were transported under teacher supervision to institutions including the adjacent girls’ campus, Krishnapuram and Sabbavaram School of Excellence, among other facilities.
Opponents have challenged that account. Parents, student groups and tribal organisations have staged demonstrations demanding that the existing school continue at Marikavalasa. The agitation widened after allegations that some pupils were made to leave the hostel at night, prompting the All India Child Rights Protection Forum to seek intervention from the Andhra Pradesh Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
The row has also produced unease within the ruling alliance. Bheemili MLA Ganta Srinivasa Rao questioned the manner in which students were shifted and stressed that parents should have been taken into confidence before any relocation affecting children in a residential institution.
Reddy, who served as chief minister until 2024, accused the government of using police measures to silence political opposition to the relocation. He asked why leaders supporting the parents were being detained and demanded that the administration address the grievances of tribal families rather than treating the protests as a law-and-order problem.
The government has countered that the Centre of Excellence is intended to expand access to intensive residential coaching for tribal students seeking admission to institutions such as IITs, NITs and medical colleges. Officials say Visakhapatnam was chosen because of its educational infrastructure and transport links to tribal areas of north Andhra Pradesh.
The CoE plan, a statewide programme, includes three centres for Scheduled Caste students, one for Scheduled Tribe students at Marikavalasa and two for Backward Class students. Officials said the model was redesigned because earlier arrangements for Intermediate-level competitive preparation had not delivered expected results. The Marikavalasa protest has nevertheless become a test of how the government balances that policy objective with continuity of schooling, parental consultation and safeguards for children already living and studying in welfare residential campuses.
