Girl students in State have better days ahead

Govt to ensure accommodation and full protection to girl students belonging to poor families; It completes construction of 102 hostels out of the total 192 planned

Hyderabad: Girl children belonging to poor families in Telangana are getting a big boost, thanks to the progressive measures adopted by the government for the all-round development of the 29th State in the country.

To encourage girls’ education in the State in a big way, the State government is providing accommodation to them by constructing 192 hostels attached to model schools with all facilities beginning from September 1 this year, said Deputy Chief Minister Kadiyam Srihari.

Talking to media persons at the Secretariat here on Wednesday, the Minister who also holds Education portfolio said out of 192 hostels planned, 102 hostels had been built so far at a cost of Rs 123 crore. He said a total of Rs 247 crore was sanctioned to provide hostel accommodation to girls with all facilities.

Each hostel would provide accommodation to some 100 students and the models schools will have all basic amenities. Giving a pat to the Engineering wing of the government for reaching the target on time, Kadiyam said construction of the rest of hostels would be completed by the end of this month.

The Deputy Chief Minister claimed that the Telangana State had reached 70 per cent of the target to construct toilets in the schools by spending Rs 117 crore out of Rs 183 crore sanctioned. The TRS government was committed to give a boost to girls’ education and necessary measures would be taken to provide complete protection to the girls.

“We are not conducting DSC this time as we are going for a complete overhaul of rationalisation of schools and teachers-students ratio,” he said. Inadequacy of English medium faculty was a cause of concern, he said, adding that they were working out a plan to mitigate this problem.

He expressed concern that the inadequacy of English teachers at schools was another reason why they were planning DSC next academic year. “As of now, we need school assistants and not special grade teachers,” he added. The new girls hostels attached to the model schools will be inaugurated in a week.

Kadiyam said of the hostels would be inaugurated during the Grama Jyothi programme scheduled from August 17-23. He further said 102 hostels can house about 10,200 girls in well-furnished rooms for free. “The admissions will be completed by the month-end and from September 1 these hostels will be open for students,” he added.

While 192 model schools were sanctioned in the first phase, the government completed admissions to 177 schools. And five new schools have come up in Shankarpally in RR district, Mancherial, Adilabad, Kodimial and Karimnagar. An admission notification would be issued and classes would begin from the current academic year only.

A total of 182 model schools would be operational from this year and the works of 10 buildings would be completed soon, Kadiyam said. “Telangana will be the first State in the country to complete the works of all sanctioned model schools in the State,” he said. On amenities in government schools, Kadiyam said the government had prepared a roadmap to provide facilities like toilets, power, water supply, compound walls and kitchen sheds to all schools.