VIJAYAWADA: The government schools in the State received 2.68 lakh more admissions in the current academic year compared to last year. As against 39.78 lakh enrolled in government schools in 2019, the number the students who took admission in government/aided schools this year has increased to 42.46 lakh this year. Officials attributed it to the development of infrastructure in the government schools under the Nadu-Nedu program.
The reforms undertaken by the State government are aimed at uplifting the standard of education imparted in government schools and the efforts are yielding immaculate results, officials said. What is more interesting is that 2,01,833 students opted for transfer from private to government schools in just one year. The success in reversing the trend can be attributed to a plethora of student/parent-oriented schemes implemented since 2019.
Jagananna Ammavodi, Nadu-Nedu and Jagananna Vidya Kanuka form the base of the government’s drive to place government schools at par with their private counterparts, the officials of the school education department said. Particularly, Nadu- Nedu (Then-Now), a massive exercise taken up by the State government for revamping over 45,000 government schools. Apart from major infrastructure renovations, each school will also be equipped with a dedicated English lab in order to facilitate modern learning. As many as 15,715 schools will get English labs in the first phase, which is expected to be completed by January, 2021.
Another two schemes, including Jagananna Ammavodi and Jaganna Vidya Kanuka, also resulted in the increase of admissions. Under Jagananna Ammavodi, a flagship scheme of the YSRC government, annually a sum of Rs 15,000 is given to the mothers of classes 1-12 students in the government schools. Each student is supplied with uniforms, a school bag, books, socks, a belt and other necessities under the Jaganna Vidya Kanuka scheme, which not only reduces the financial burden on the poor families at the start of each academic year but also helps the government control dropout rate.
When contacted, School Education Commissioner V China Veerabhadrudu told TNIE that the infrastructure development in schools under Nadu-Nedu and other initiatives by the government instilled confidence among the students and parents.
Moreover, most of the private schools are yet to commence classes. Veerabhadrudu said as the government schools have reopened, the students are preferring to join them as they are confident of getting quality education and good food there. He asserted that there are possibilities of further increase in the number of admissions in government schools in the coming days.
“I have recently inspected a school in Punadipadu village of Krishna district. A girl student, who studied in a private school by paying Rs 20,000 per year, joined the government school. In fact, she is impressed with the quality standards and better infrastructure in the school,’’ Veerabhadrudu said.
