HYDERABAD: Finance minister T Harish Rao was left stunned on Saturday when a class X student could not even write his teacher’s name. What shocked the minister further was the inability of students to answer some of the questions posed by him on various subjects.The minister, who was visiting the Zilla Parishad High School at Kandi in Sangareddy district, later expressed dissatisfaction at the level of education pursued by the students. The minister was dumbstruck as most of the class 10 students could not write names in either Telugu or English.“Is this how we are preparing students for examinations when our aim is to get 100% results?” the minister said, questioning the teacher when the student could not write the teacher’s name in any language. “What is the point in giving them tuitions?” the minister said when the teacher tried to tell him that he was doing his best to teach the students.The minister wondered as to what was being taught as the students were not able to get simple mathematics and tables right. One student could not tell how many days form a year. “How many seconds are there in a day?” he asked another student. There was a stoic silence. Harish Rao waited but there came no answer.The minister then asked the students if they knew the tables by heart. No one could get the 12 times table right, leave alone 13 or 17. “Do you only teach them tables up to 10 times table because they are students of class 10?” the minister asked the teachers, expressing his displeasure.When Harish asked the students about the country’s capital and capitals of various states, he did not get a single answer as the students looked at him clueless. “How can these students compete elsewhere when they are not even taught their subjects well?” he said, chiding the teachers.After inspecting the mid-day meals being served to students, he posed the questions to students. Except for one girl student, whom the minister appreciated and congratulated for giving the right answers, none of the others could come up with answers.At another meeting, Harish, who had earlier noticed the streetlights glowing during the day, called up the employee responsible for maintaining them. He placed the mobile on loudspeaker and placed it near the mike as he spoke to him. The minister sought to know the employee’s location and wanted him to give the phone to somebody on the road so that the minister could verify. With the minister persisting and the employee evading doing what the minister was asking him to do, Harish finally asked if he was in his fields. The employee admitted he was indeed in the field though he had earlier said he was on the road.