The State is witnessing a new trend of reverse migration of students from private schools to government schools, thanks to the educational reforms ushered in by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government.
A major chunk of parents who preferred to send their wards to private institutions due to lack of proper infrastructure facilities and shortcomings in other areas in the State-run schools in the past, are now shifting their preferences.
Realising the need for radical reforms in the education sector to overhaul the system and to attract students and their parents to enrol in the State-run schools, the government designed a series of novel initiatives like Nadu-Nedu and Jagananna Vidya Kanuka that not only extended financial assistance to mothers willing to send their children to government schools but also created the much-needed infrastructure facilities in the school compounds.
According to official statistics, the student enrolment in government schools this year is 42.46 lakh, up by 2.68 lakh, compared to last year’s enrolments of 39.78 lakh students.
What is noteworthy is that 2,01,833 students have opted to migrate from a private school to a State-run school in just one year and the department officials attribute this healthy trend to the successful implementation of the schemes.
Facelift
A massive exercise to revamp over 45,000 schools across the State has been taken up under Nadu-Nedu programme. Besides improving infrastructure facilities, schools under this programme are equipped with dedicated English language labs to facilitate modern learning. Currently, 15,715 schools are being given a facelift in the first phase scheduled to be completed by January.
The Jagananna Vidya Kanuka, yet another key welfare scheme, aims at grooming a confident future generation of students by investing on them today. Under this, students up to Class 10 receive school kits that comprise uniforms, books, shoes, socks, belts and school bags. The scheme serves the twin purpose of sparing parents of the financial burden and helping the department officials check school drop-out rate.