The Telangana government has set in motion its best initiative till date by laying the foundation for 28 Young India integrated residential schools. If it is carried to conclusion, the idea has the potential to change educational standards across the state for the better. The proposed schools will offer English-medium education to all—irrespective of caste, creed or religion—for Classes 4 to 12. Spread over 20-25 acres each, they plan to enrol 2,560 students and be equipped with state-of-the-art teaching facilities including digital smart boards, computer labs and libraries. The government intends to open one such school in each of the 119 assembly constituencies.
It must be appreciated for allocating a staggering Rs 5,000 crore for constructing the schools. As of now, there are 1,023 residential government schools in the state, but 662 of them do not even have buildings of their own. Coming close on the heels of the recruitment of over 11,000 teachers, the concept of integrated schools ties in well with the Telangana Skills University, the foundation for which was laid by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy in August, as also the plan to upgrade the industrial training institutes into advanced technology centres in collaboration with Tata Technologies.
The policy of improving educational standards, and upskilling young graduates and the unemployed in line with industry needs, can work wonders as the state and the country are looking for skilled manpower in critical fields necessary for the growth of manufacturing and cutting-edge technologies. In Telangana, the efforts till now have been towards promoting IT and innovation, but grassroots development through schools and intermediate education was largely left to the private sector, which comes with its own exorbitant prices that leave the poor behind. This has been Telangana’s weakness for ages. Against this backdrop, the 9-year integrated residential education is a step in the right direction. There could always be a slip between the cup and the lip. While the idea of holistic development of the education system is the need of the hour, the government should not lose sight of the lakhs of students who study in the state’s public schools. It must improve infrastructure in those schools as well if it is to succeed in its overall mission.