Equal Education: AP CM YS Jagan Opens New Chapter In Early Schooling

Amaravati: Lessening the learning gap between government and other paid schools, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has been providing a level playfield to all students and has changed the curriculum of academic dynamics.

Catching them young, and to make the children school-ready Pre-Primary 1 and 2 will be available in Anganwadis where preparation of the children takes place for them to  enter the main school after the necessary bridge is laid in the form of education is fun.

The year has seen the revamping of schools with all the necessary infrastructure and ambience on par or even better than private institutions. The State Government has taken up revamping of Government Schools with all the essentials put an end to the forlorn tales of the past. Earlier, there were attempts to close down the government schools to favour private institutions.

YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, during his 3,648 km padayatra had seen the plight of students studying in government schools and the inability of parents to send their wards to private institutions resulting in a yawning gap in standards and outlook between the students vis-à-vis the schools they go to.

Bringing in a new order, the Chief Minister has initiated a slew of measures from incentivizing mothers to send their children to school, dusting off the years of apathy in maintenance of government schools and making them tidy, besides sprinkling taste, affection, variety and nutrition into the midday meal scheme under Jagananna Goru Muddha, supplying uniform, bags and book to students on time, fees reimbursement from Degree onwards along with taking care of hostel and mess charges, starting courses of skill development and job orientation in the final year of college and reservation for locals in jobs to complete the circuit.

Introducing English medium from primary level has been welcomed by a whopping majority of Parents’ Committees while detractors have been contending otherwise. This is one step that would provide a level playing field for all students.

With Corona looming large, the academic year limped, restricting classes to only high school, but the welfare schemes did not stop and rolled on as scheduled.   

‘Mana Badi-Nadu Nedu’ programme aims to revamp, rebuild and recreate the government schools, Anganwadi centres and Colleges.
In the first phase, 15,715 government schools will be renovated and will be equipped with fans, blackboards, water purifiers, cupboards and other infrastructure. All the schools will get ten facilities including compound walls, toilets, and English labs. The remaining 31,073 will be taken up for revamp in the second and third phases and schools will be decked up by March 2022. Anganwadi centres will double up as Pre-priamary 1 and 2 and will also get a facelift.

On multiple occasions, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has emphasized to opt for stress-free education and focus on building a healthy learning environment for the students. He also laid a special focus on inculcating the habit of reading among the students and thus ‘We Love Reading’ campaign started. The one-year reading fluency campaign takes place in four phases Preparatory, Foundation, Advanced and Valedictory to improve the reading skills of children from classes 3 to 9.

Under Jagananna Gorumuddha, nutritious food will be given to 40 lakh students in 45,484 government and aided schools. The pay for those working for cooking and providing midday meal was increased from Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000 to garnish the meal with taste and commitment.

Under ‘Jagananna Vidya Kanuka', school kits were provided to children up to 10th standard, consisting of uniforms, books, shoes, socks, belt and school bag to 42.3 lakh students at a cost of Rs 650 crore.

As education is the only asset that can be offered to lakhs of students of the downtrodden families to better their lives, Jagananna Vidya Deevena was launched which is total fees reimbursement benefiting 14 lalkh college going students and Rs 4,000 crore was credited into their mothers’ back accounts besides Rs 1,880 crore towards pending dues

'Jagananna Vasathi Deevena' would take care of the hostel and mess charges payable up to Rs 20,000 per student annually. The scheme costs Rs 2,300 crore benefiting 11 lakh students.

The State would start 30 Skill Development Centres along with a high-end IT Skill University in Visakhapatnam. Each parliamentary constituency will have one Skill Development Centre and four centres will be set up in collaboration with the four IIITs and one centre will be attached to Pulivendula JNTU.

The IT Skill University will be training the students in Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and other modern courses with job orientation. With regard to developing and designing the skill development curriculum, the State government has been partnered with four international institutes Singapore Polytechnic, Van Hall Larenstein (University of Applied Studies), GIZ and Department for International Development for setting up of lab infrastructure in skill development centres.

Towards this end, 23 reputed organisations including Dell, Tata, HP, IBM and Biocon have come forward for signing MoUs with the government and discussions are on with 35 other companies.

The Year has seen hectic activity in developing infrastructure and rolling of welfare schemes and planning for a better tomorrow for the future citizens.