The State Government is actively considering the proposal for upgrading Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) as junior colleges.
The government represented the need for extending financial assistance for these institutions up to tenth standard so that the State Government can embark upon upgrading them to junior colleges. “The Central Government responded positively to the request,” said Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Kadiyam Srihari.
The Central Government is currently extending assistance from sixth to eighth classes and the State is contributing for the expenditure incurred on students studying from eighth to tenth classes. The State Government took steps to enhance the salaries of the special officers and contract resource teachers from ₹15,000 to ₹20,000 and ₹9,000 to ₹15,000 respectively. A proposal to further enhance the salaries of special officers to ₹25,000 and CRTs to ₹20,000 is under consideration by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, he said addressing a press conference here on Monday.
Quality education
The Minister elaborated on the steps initiated by the government to strengthen infrastructure as well as to provide quality education in these institutions. The Central Government had recently sanctioned 84 KGBVs to the existing 391, taking the total to 475, following identification of 110 mandals as educationally backward post-reorganisation of districts and mandals. The government is was incurring ₹242 crore for maintenance of these institutions and another ₹306 crore for creating necessary facilities for students in them.
Over 71,000 students are were currently studying in the KGBVs where English has been introduced as medium of teaching. A majority of these institutions are without compound walls, but the TRS government had taken steps to construct compound walls for 371 out of the 391 existing schools. Compound walls in the remaining schools could not be completed because of land litigations, but the government had taken steps to install CCTV cameras in all these institutions, the Minister said.
The Government sanctioned ₹125 crore for construction of additional blocks in 60 KGBVs while the Centre sanctioned ₹90.72 crore for construction of buildings for 34 out of the 84 newly sanctioned vidyalayas. Efforts made by the government have started yielding results with the number of admissions and good performance of the studentsshowing constant improvement. Following requests made by legislators cutting across party lines for setting up residential degree colleges in their respective constituencies, the Chief Minister had asked the department to prepare a comprehensive list of areas where there is a need for setting them up of these colleges, he added