VIJAYAWADA: All the municipal schools in the state will be equipped with physics, chemistry, botany, English and computer labs and also provided basic amenities for their students in the next nine months, according to Municipal Administration minister P Narayana.
Disclosing this while addressing a gathering at an awareness programme conducted for the parents and students on the IIT foundation course at the CVR Municipal High School here Monday, he said that the government had initiated measures for enhancing the quality of education in municipal schools.
“As a part of these measures, we are going to launch the 20-day IIT foundation course for the top 50 students of eighth, ninth and tenth standards, where the faculty of Narayana Educational Institutions will teach the Intermediate basics during these summer vacations and enable the students to compete with the corporate school students,” he said.
The minister pointed out that though 2,500 students were qualifying in IIT and AIIMS entrance tests every year, the percentage of students from municipal schools among them was zero due to lack of basic knowledge among the latter.
“Most of the corporate schools have started teaching the IIT basics from the sixth standard itself. So the government has decided to incorporate the IIT foundation course as part of the regular curriculum in municipal schools from the eighth standard,” he added.
“There are 1,852 municipal schools in the state with 2.5 lakh students. Though these schools have the student intake capacity of five lakh, due to lack of quality education in them, most parents are preferring corporate schools for their children. The government is therefore making efforts to increase the strength of the municipal schools to five lakh by 2016,” he said.
Vijayawada Municipal Corporation commissioner G Veerapandian said that majority of the students pursuing education in municipal schools hailed from the low and middle income groups and added that with this IIT foundation courses to enhance their communication and language skills would immensely help make the students more employable.