STATE Government to set up junior colleges in every mandal

Amaravati: All the upper primary schools will be upgraded as plus 2 schools in the State in a phased manner. Disclosing this to officials at a review meeting on education at the Secretariat on Wednesday, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy asked them to establish at least one Intermediate college in every mandal in the State.

An action plan should be prepared to ensure that every mandal has one junior college and wherever possible high schools should be upgraded to junior colleges and an elaborate exercise should be carried out to identify the places where they should be set up.

In the same manner every Assembly constituency should have one degree college, he said. In addition to that, as part of sweeping reforms in the education sector, government will introduce English medium from Class-1 to Class-8 from the next academic year besides filling up the vacant posts of teachers in January every year.

Jagan said that from the next academic year all government schools will have English medium from Class-1 to Class-8 and necessary training will be imparted to teachers to meet the changing needs and times.

As part of this exercise, nearly 70,000 teachers would be trained for teaching in English medium in the District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) which will also be strengthened. The vacant posts of teachers would be filled up in January every year and the teacher-student ratio would be maintained at all times. Environment, climate change and road safety would also be included in the curriculum.

The State has decided to refurbish 44,512 schools under 'Then and Now' and the first phase will cover 15,410 schools. Every phase should cover Panchayat Raj, Municipal, Tribal, Social, BC Welfare and other schools. The first phase should be completed by March 14, 2020 and there will also be a social audit, he said.

Parents should be involved in the education of children. The Chief Minister stressed the need for improving the quality of mid-day meal and the eggs supplied as part of the meal, he told the officials.

Brushing aside the talk that permissions were not being given to private colleges, the Chief Minister said, if the institutions have the stipulated infrastructure there will not be any problem.