Reform push in AP educational system helps students brace for global competition

VIJAYAWADA: The State government led by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has been giving top priority for education sector by bringing several reforms.

The education sector in the State has certainly undergone lot of changes which includes modernisation of school buildings under Nadu-Nedu programme, introduction of English medium, implementation of various schemes including Amma Vodi, Vidya Deevena, Vasathi Deevena and Videshi Vidya Deevena etc. What has made the student community happy was mainly introducing of bilingual textbooks to improve both Telugu and English languages. Of course, there is strong criticism that the government was ignoring promotion of mother tongue Telugu.

But the government has been maintaining that they were laying greater emphasis on English medium so that the future generations become industry ready with global standards. This however does not mean that they were ignoring Telugu.

Another initiative of the government was introduction of TOEFL training for students. Digitalisation of classrooms from Class 6 and the proposals to introduce International Baccalaureate (IB) Standard curriculum and Artificial intelligence in higher education the government feels will help the students to be competitive globally. The Centre’s decision to permit 17 new medical colleges would help the State have well trained doctors in the next few years time. Hopefully, it will help in solving the problem of not having proper strength of doctors in rural area hospitals and PHCs.

However, to make the doctors ready to go to rural areas, the government may have to extend certain additional benefits and provide infrastructural facilities, medical experts opine.

Another recent development was Chief Minister inaugurating five educational research hubs in Andhra University and laying of foundation stone along with Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for Tribal University.

Tribal University was a promise made by the Union government in the AP Re-Organisation Act 2014 at the time of bifurcation.

The other initiatives which have the potential to improve the educational sector are MoU with the edX, a leading e-learning platform developed by Harvard and Massachusetts Universities to conduct Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs),

The Chief Minister also gave green signal to fill all existing vacancies in universities and IIITs on regular basis, revised the curriculum by including 4 year UG honours degree along with job oriented modules and 30 per cent skill development courses to increase employment opportunities to students.