Vijayawada: Education Assts to help achieve 100% enrollment in schools

Vijayawada: To achieve the vision of the State government to have Gross Enrolment Ratio of 100 per cent in primary and secondary level, it was important that education assistants of Village and Ward secretariat should be totally integrated with education department, stated School Education Principal Secretary Praveen Prakash. This institution was created on 2 October 2019, and 10,000 persons were posted as education assistants (Edu Asst). However, the department, because of its slow nature of changing its mindset, has not owned up to this institution of education assistant till now, he informed.

In a press statement on Sunday, Praveen Prakash requested district Collectors, District Education Officers and Mandal Education Officers to recognise that it is the responsibility of the older institution to make the new institution comfortable in the system and not vice versa. In other words, district and mandal education officers are older institutions, and it is their responsibility to make the education assistant comfortable. “Keeping this in mind, mandal education officers are requested to have a programme called ‘Coffee with Education Assistant’, let it be a one-to-one meeting and not a one-to-many meeting in which the mandal education officers will share the vision of the government regarding Mission Gross Enrolment Ratio 100, Jagananna Gorumudda, Jagananna Vidya Kanuka, Toilet Maintenance Fund and School Maintenance fund and also about the importance of having 100% attendance of students in schools.

The Principal Secretary said that each MEO should have 2 to 3 such meetings every week. Similarly, district education officers will have a mandal wise meeting with the education assistants of the mandal. The meeting will be a half day meeting followed by lunch/high tea. Education assistants have a network with volunteers and through volunteers, we can reach out to the parents of students. It is smart and prudent on the part of Headmasters, and Mandal Education Officers to use the network of Education Assistants and volunteers to reach out to the parents of students for improving the areas like, higher attendance of students, higher attendance of parents in parents-teacher meetings, improved behaviour to students wearing shoes,” he added.