VIJAYAWADA: If a new initiative by the School Education Department comes into effect, then students from cities and towns would be able to visit the schools in rural areas, and vice-versa. With the initiative, which is expected to be implemented by the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) from the last week of October, the officials aim at enhancing social awareness among the schoolchildren.
As part of it, a school from an urban area would be paired with another from a rural area. The objective is also to adopt the best practices in terms of the course curriculum, and co-curricular and extra-curricular activities.
The State has a total of 11,378 schools. In each district, as many as 876 schools have been identified for the pairing.
While the first batch of students is likely to visit their respective paired schools in October-end, the second batch may do the same a month later.
As such, each institution will be reportedly given an allowance of `1,000 towards transportation charges for each student.
Speaking to TNIE, a senior SSA official said: “The initiative is being implemented as per the directions of the Government of India. Presently, there is a similar practice being observed in Kendriya Vidyalayas. Our initiative is inspired by that programme where schools in urban and rural areas will be paired together. The duration of the visit will be one-two days.”