Andhra Pradesh Government lays emphasis on development of education sector

Amaravati: Strongly believing that education can only help to improve the financial status of the poor, Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has been taking initiatives to lessen the gap in educational standards in government and private schools by changing the curriculum of academic dynamics.

The State government has taken up revamping of schools in a big way with all the necessary infrastructure and ambience on par or even better than private institutions under Nadu-Nedu programme.

Introducing English medium from primary level has been welcomed by a whopping majority of Parents' Committees.

The Chief Minister emphasised the need for stress-free education and focused on building a healthy learning environment for the students. He also laid a special focus on inculcating the habit of reading among students and thus 'We Love Reading' campaign started.

Under Jagananna Gorumudda, nutritious food will be given to 40 lakh students in 45,484 government and aided schools.

Under 'Jagananna Vidya Kanuka', school kits were provided to children up to 10th standard. In all, 42.3 lakh students were covered under the scheme at a cost of Rs 650 crore. Jagananna Vidya Deevena is a total fee reimbursement scheme benefiting 14 lakh college students and Rs 4,000 crore was credited into their mothers' bank accounts. '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. The government has 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 government and discussions are on with 35 other companies. The year has seen hectic activity in developing infrastructure and rolling of welfare schemes to improve education sector in the State.