Amaravati: To reduce the learning gap between government and private schools, Andhra Pradesh CM Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy is trying to provide a level-playing field to all students. To make young children in the state school-ready, pre-primary 1 and 2 levels will now be available in Anganwadi centres, where the children will be prepared for primary school after the necessary bridge is laid in the form of education.
Bringing in a new order, the Andhra CM has initiated a slew of measures, from incentivising mothers to send their children to school, dusting off the years of apathy for maintenance of government schools and making them tidy, besides introducing taste, variety and nutrition in the mid-day meals under Jagananna Gorumudda scheme, supplying uniforms, bags and books to students on time, reimbursing fees from the Degree-level onwards along with taking care of hostel and mess charges, starting courses of skill development and job orientation in the final year of college and providing reservations for locals for jobs to complete the circuit.
Introducing English-medium education at the primary level has been welcomed by a whopping majority of Parents’ Committees while detractors have been contending otherwise. This is a step that would provide a level playing field for all students. With Covid looming large, the academic year has suffered, but welfare schemes have not stopped and been rolled on as scheduled.
The ‘Mana Badi-Nadu Nedu’ programme aims to revamp, rebuild and recreate government schools, Anganwadi centres and colleges. In the first phase, 15,715 government schools will be renovated and will be equipped with fans, blackboards, water purifiers, cupboards and other infrastructure. All the schools will get ten facilities including compound walls, toilets, and English labs. The remaining 31,073 will be taken up for revamping in the second and third phases and schools will be decked up by March 2022. Anganwadi centres will double up as pre-primary 1 and 2 and also get a facelift.
Under ‘Jagananna Gorumuddha’, nutritious food will be given to 40 lakh students in 45,484 government and aided schools. The pay for those cooking and providing the mid-day meals has been increased from Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000. Meanwhile, under ‘Jagananna Vidya Kanuka’, school kits have been provided to to 42.3 lakh students up to 10th standard, consisting of uniforms, books, shoes, socks, belts and school bags at a cost of Rs 650 crores.
This year has seen the revamping of schools with all the necessary infrastructure and ambience on par or even better than private institutions. The Andhra government has taken up the initiative of revamping government schools with all the essentials required to put an end to the forlorn tales of the past. Jaganmohan Reddy, during his 3,648 km padayatra, had seen the plight of students studying in government schools and the inability of parents to send their wards to private institutions, which was resulting in a yawning gap in the standards and outlook between students vis-à-vis the schools they go to.
