The State government is actively working on bringing in a new and comprehensive education policy envisaging emerging requirements in future and ensuring that students completing their courses are employment-ready.
The Education Commission is working out the modalities of the policy and the government is committed to implementing all the recommendations made by the Commission, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy said. The State government is taking steps for a total revamp of the existing system to ensure that students from Telangana are made globally competitive.
The Chief Minister was speaking at a meeting organised in connection with handing over appointment letters to 10,006 candidates qualified in the recently conducted District Selection Committee examination. As many as 11,063 candidates qualified in the examination, but appointment letters to little over 1,000 had been kept in abeyance due to legal issues. “We have initiated steps to resolve these issues,” Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumari said.
Explaining about the initiatives of his government for improving the education sector, Mr. Revanth Reddy said these steps were necessitated as people were keen on sending their children to private/corporate schools rather than State-run institutions. This could be seen from the fact that there were 24 lakh students in 30,000 government schools and 34 lakh students in 10,000 institutions functioning in the private sector.
“Are they more qualified or do they have more capabilities? Why are people reluctant to get their wards admitted into the government schools?” he asked. The government had therefore decided to set up integrated residential schools with sprawling campuses where corporate-level education would be imparted to students. These schools, at least one in each constituency to begin with, would have all the infrastructure where students would get education on par with the universities. “Works on integrated residential schools in 25 assembly constituencies will be launched on October 11 coinciding with Vijayadasami,” he said. This was in addition to the steps that had been taken to improve facilities in all the State-run institutions for which ₹21,000 crore had been allocated in the current year’s budget.
Mr. Revanth Reddy launched a trenchant attack on the previous BRS government for neglecting the unemployed youth who played a crucial role in the separate Statehood movement aspiring for a bright future in Telangana. “But former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was focused on providing employment to his family members instead of redressing the grievances of the unemployed. His daughter Kalvakuntla Kavita was appointed as MLC and his relative B. Vinod Kumar Kumar was made planning board vice-chairman immediately after they were defeated in the elections,” he recalled.
He said the government anticipated suggestions from the main Opposition party for more effective implementation of the welfare and development schemes which were not forthcoming. In the event of any mistakes in the implementation of the schemes, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao should have staged a protest and raised the issue in the assembly.
Two BRS leaders (K.T. Rama Rao and T. Harish Rao) took to the streets and were trying to create obstacles for all programmes of the government, including the appointment of teachers. He did not name them though. “They are trying to destabilise the government, but people have seen through their efforts. The BRS will never come to power again,” he said.
The Chief Minister later administered a pledge to the selected candidates that they would work for the all-round development of society in general and students in particular as part of reconstruction of Telangana.
Published - October 09, 2024 07:05 pm IST
