Telangana government has announced Rs 4,000 crore to upgrade schools

Hyderabad: The state government has announced a new scheme to upgrade the government schools in Telangana and has allocated Rs 4,000 crore for the purpose in the budget 2021-22.

Under this scheme, the government proposes to improve the basic amenities and to ramp-up modern technology-enabled classrooms and put the government schools on the digital platform mode in the next two years.

Presenting the Budget in the Assembly on Thursday, Finance Minister T Harish Rao said apart from providing basic facilities, the government will also take up construction and repair of buildings and sanitation facilities, and the provision of furniture and other amenities.

An amount of Rs 11,735 crore was proposed in the Budget Estimate 2021-22 for School Education and an amount of Rs 1,873 crore for Higher Education. In comparison, last year, an amount of Rs 10,421 crore was proposed for School Education and Rs 1,723.27 crore for Higher Education, apart from Rs 100 crore to improve the literacy rate of the State.

Harish Rao said that parents are eager to send children to Telangana Residential Schools (for SCs, STs, BCs and minorities) as they are on par with "corporate educational institutions" in providing quality education.

The total number of Residential Schools went up from 298 in 2014, to 970 schools at present, he said, adding that the government is spending Rs 1 lakh a year on each student. There were 4,29,686 students studying in all categories of Residential Schools in 2019-20, he said.