VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has directed the officials of the education department to link the ‘attendance in schools’ to the ‘Amma Vodi’ scheme from the next academic year, as the primary objective of the programme is to prevent ‘school drop-outs’.
He directed the officials to take measures to get CBSE affiliation for all government schools and ensure the students write CBSE exams in 2024. Addressing a review meeting on the implementation of Amma Vodi and Vidya Kanuka, Jagan said the main reason for introducing Amma Vodi is to ensure all the school children are in schools and create awareness among parents of educating children and not sending them to work.
Further to encourage children to come to schools and ensure they get textbooks and have the self-confidence of being not inferior to anyone, Vidya Kanuka was introduced. Over 15,000 government schools were renovated under the first phase of ‘Mana Badi Nadu-Nedu’ programme.
“To ensure that all school children attend classes, we made it mandatory that the Amma Vodi scheme is only applicable to those children having 75 per cent attendance. But, unfortunately, due to Covid pandemic, schools could not be operated in regular manner,” he said.
Emphasising the need for continuing the spirit of ‘Amma Vodi’ scheme to achieve its objective, the Chief Minister directed the officials to implement the 75 per cent compulsory attendance for availing Amma Vodi scheme from the next academic year. He said both Amma Vodi and Vidya Kanuka should be implemented from June, when the academic year commences.
Directing education department officials to get CBSE affiliation for all schools, he said every school should have a playground and directed the officials to map schools without playgrounds, acquire required lands and allot playgrounds to those schools and asked them to ensure playgrounds in pre-high schools in the coming days.
Functioning of schools
He enquired on prevailing conditions in schools after the pandemic, implementation of Covid preventive measures in schools and attendance. The officials informed him that there is no significant impact of the pandemic in schools now, thanks to the preventive measures taken by the government. All the teachers have been vaccinated and are attending schools.
Jagn instructed the officials to take steps to give work order for procurement of items under Jagananna Vidya Kanuka by December and ensure Vidya kanuka kits are delivered to students before the schools reopen every year. He inspected the quality of sports dress, shoes and suggested some changes. Officials were instructed to prepare an action plan to make `1 lakh available at every school for maintenance works. When the officials proposed ranking on the performance of schools through social audit, the Chief Minister directed them to speak to the teachers in this regard.
He said the ranking system should only to identify where the schools are lacking, but not to point out the mistakes, and directed the officials to explain it to teachers clearly. The Chief Minister instructed the officials to complete mapping of teachers soon and introduce the policy of subject-wise teachers and asked them to improve curriculum.
Education Minister Adimulapu Suresh, School Education Principal Secretary Buditi Rajashekar, Women and Child Welfare Principal Secretary A R Anuradha were present.