Investment in quality English education can defeat poverty, opined Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy while formally launching the Jagananna Vidya Kanuka programme here on Tuesday.
Under the programme, the government will be spending ₹931 crore to distribute 47.40 lakh kits across the State. In all, 4.08 lakh students of Classes VIII and IX will be given tabs worth ₹12,000 to access the Byju’s online classes at a cost of ₹500 crore.
“Focus is on making every student in government schools capable enough to face global competition in the job market. For that, quality education is a must, that too in English medium. We have spent ₹52,600 crore in the education sector at different levels so far,” Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy told a large gathering of school students and their mothers.
Classroom inaugurated
The Chief Minister sat on the bench and spent some time interacting with the students of Classes IX and X at Nehru Memorial Municipal High School here after inaugurating the modern classrooms provided as part of the ‘Mana Badi - Nadu - Nedu’ programme before addressing a public meeting on the school’s ground.
“We have been improving the quality of Jagananna Kanuka kits every year. We had distributed 42.43 lakh kits in the 2019-20 academic year (each kit costing ₹1,500). This year, the government will be distributing 47.40 lakh kits, as 7.20 lakh private school students have joined the government schools,” he said.
Investment tripled
The YSRCP government had tripled the investment in the education sector, he said. Out of ₹52,600 crore, Amma Vodi alone accounted for ₹19,600 crore, followed by fee reimbursement (₹7,700 crore) and Vasati Deevena ₹3,329 crore. Under the ‘Goru Mudda’ mid-day meal scheme, the YSRCP government spent ₹1,850 crore against ₹500 crore by the previous TDP government, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said.
A Class IX student of Nehru Municipal High School, Sai Chandrika, and a Class X student of A.P. Residential High School, Madhavi, stunned the gathering, including Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy, with their fluent speech in English, thanking the Chief Minister for taking care of their needs with various schemes.
The girls also expressed happiness over the scheme through which they get 10 branded sanitary napkins every month, and for construction of new toilets with running water facility.
Each school kit contains three sets of uniforms, one bag, one belt, a pair of shoes and socks, bilingual textbooks, and Oxford Dictionary.
District Collector P. Koteswara Rao welcomed the Chief Minister. Education Minister B. Satyanarayana too addressed the students.
