In a big thumbs-up to the state government’s education policy, more than two lakh students from private schools joined government schools in Andhra Pradesh this year.
A total of 42.46 lakh students enrolled themselves in government/government-aided schools this year, which is 2.68 lakh more than the enrolment figure from 2019, which stood at 39.78 lakh. What is more important is that 2,01,833 students have opted for transfers from private to government schools in just one year.
The government’s success can be attributed to a plethora of student/parent-oriented schemes implemented since 2019—Jagananna Ammavodi, Nadu-Nedu and Jaganna Vidya Kanuka—which form the base of the government’s drive to place government schools at par with their private counterparts.
Financial benefits: Under the Jagananna Ammavodi scheme, annually, a sum of 15,000 is advanced to the mother of a student of classes 1-12. It gives parents an incentive to educate their children instead of resorting to employing them for extra income.
Modernisation: The government has undertaken a massive exercise of revamping over 45,000 schools in the state. Apart from major infrastructural renovations, each of the schools will also be equipped with a dedicated English lab in order to facilitate modern learning. About 15,715 schools were taken up in the first phase of the project and are expected to be finished by January 2021.
Students are also supplied with uniforms, a school bag, books, socks, a belt and other necessities. This not only reduces the financial burden on poor families but also helps the government control dropout rates.