VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will deposit Rs 680.44 crore directly into the bank accounts of 8,44,336 mothers of 9,32,235 students for the quarter April-June 2023 under the Jagananna Vidya Deevena scheme at a programme at Nagari in Chittoor district on Monday.
With an aim of providing higher education to the poor students, the YSRC government is reimbursing the total fee soon after the completion of quarter and directly depositing the sum into the bank accounts of mothers of student beneficiaries studying ITI, Polytechnic, degree, engineering, medicine and other courses without any limit on the number of eligible children in a family.
With the assistance of Rs 680.44 crore being provided on Monday, the government has so far disbursed a total of Rs 15,593 crore under Jagananna Vidya Deevena and Jagananna Vasathi Deevena.
The government has incurred Rs 69,289 crore expenditure on educational reforms. It is not only taking care of educational expenses of students but also their boarding and lodging expenses. A financial assistance of Rs 20,000 is being provided to students studying degree, engineering and medicine, Rs 15,000 to polytechnic and Rs 10,000 to ITI courses in two installments every year, officials explained.
The government wants to ensure that no student is deprived of higher education due to poverty. Hence, it has come up with schemes like Jagananna Vidya Deevena and Vasathi Deevena to reimburse total fee, besides providing boarding and lodging expenses to students.
The number of students, who passed Intermediate but could not join degree courses, was 81,813 in 2018-19. With the implementation of Vidya Deevena and Vasathi Deevena, the number has come down to 22,387 in 2022-23.The dropout rate in higher education has declined significantly to 6.62% in 2022-23 as against the national average of 27%, the officials highlighted.
The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in the State was 32.4% in 2018-19. Steps are being taken to increase GER to 80%. The average number of girls enrolling in colleges per every 100 boys has increased from 81 in 2018-19 to 94 in 2020-21 due to the various initiatives taken by the government to encourage girl child education. The campus placements have also made a quantum jump from 37,000 in 2018-19 to over one lakh in 2022-23, the officials pointed out the difference.
Pay college fee soon after getting aid, mothers urged
The mothers of student beneficiaries have been urged to pay the college fee of their children within a week or 10 days after Jagananna Vidya Deevena amount is credited into their bank accounts. “In case of failure to do so, the next instalment of the fee reimbursement will be directly credited into the bank accounts of colleges,” officials said