323 new junior colleges to come up in AP

Tirupati: The State government has intensified the steps to establish more junior colleges in its bid to strengthen the Intermediate education.

It was proposed to set up 323 new junior colleges to add to the existing 446 in the state. The idea is to set up one new junior college in any mandal where there are more than 500 students.

The School education department has proposed to upgrade ZP high schools where the students' strength is more by starting Intermediate section which was accepted by the government.

Even new colleges will be established where already junior colleges are there. In a video conference held recently on Nadu-Nedu to be implemented in junior colleges, the Principal Secretary of School education B Rajasekhar has given enough indication on strengthening the Intermediate education further, said a Principal of a junior college.

The government has been committed to revamp this sector which has completely gone into the hands of corporate managements and spinning thousands of crores of rupees to them. Towards this goal, the government has initiated Nadu-Nedu programme to give a facelift to junior colleges by providing all required infrastructure to attract the students.

Further, by setting up new junior colleges where the student strength is more, the intention was to divert the students to the government colleges only from going towards corporate colleges.

In fact, several private and corporate colleges are not having proper infrastructure and majority of them do not have play grounds. Still, the parents prefer these colleges as they believe that the standard of education would be good there.

Focussing on such issues, the government has stepped in to improve standards in junior colleges under its purview. They believe that apart from Amma Vodi, the good infrastructure accompanied by NEET/JEE oriented education may weigh in favour of their colleges.

Among the new junior colleges viable to be sanctioned in this academic year, Anantapur will get 37 junior colleges followed by Prakasam–33, Guntur and Kadapa–32 each, East Godavari–28, West Godavari–25, Kurnool–24, Chittoor and Visakhapatnam–23, Krishna–21, Srikakulam –18, Nellore–14 and Vizianagaram–13 colleges.