Published Jul 20, 2024 | 10:38 AM ⚊ Updated Jul 20, 2024 | 10:38 AM
Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy with educationists. (TelanganaCMO/ X)
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Friday, 19 July, announced that he would soon set up an Education Commission to improve the standard of education in the state.
Assuring that his government is committed to providing quality education, the chief minister added that they will also skill the students and provide them employment. He added, “We are keen on bringing about a sea-change in education for the better from Anganwadi and primary schools to universities.”
Revanth Reddy was speaking at a conference of educationists at the state secretariat, in Hyderabad on strengthening the education sector in Telangana.
Responding to suggestions from educationists, the chief minister said that he was contemplating converting Anganwadis into pre-schools. “I intended to recruit volunteers and train them in imparting pre-primary instruction to the students.”
He also instructed them to develop proposals to start “semi-residential schools” parallel to the integrated residential schools. The idea is to provide education in “semi-residential schools” from class four.
He added that at the pre-school, the students would study up to third standard and in semi-residential and residential schools, instruction would be available from fourth to 12th standard.
The officials were also asked to elicit views of education experts and then piloted in one or two mandals in the state.
“We are planning to provide free transport to students to reach their schools every day,” he said.
Elaborating on the measures taken by his government to strengthen the education systems, he said, they have taken steps for the recruitment of teachers to 11,000 posts, conducting the Teachers’ Eligibility Test twice a year, distribution of books and uniforms to the students on the very first day of reopening of schools and improving basic facilities at the schools through Amma Adarsh Committees.
He said arrangements should be made to provide educational facilities to all students in their native villages, according to an official release.
To another suggestion, the chief minister said that steps were being taken to fill the vacancies of the vice-chancellors for several universities.
“We have already formed search committees and before long all universities would have vice-chancellors,” he said.
Professor G Haragopal and Professor Shantha Sinha brought to the chief minister’s notice the deterioration in standards in Osmania University and that the state was at the bottom in the education index.
Responding to their observation, the chief minister said that, to address this issue and other related subjects, he had constituted a cabinet sub-committee with ministers D Sridhar Babu, Seethakka and Ponnam Prabhakar.
The chief minister urged the educationists to give their suggestions in the form of a document to the cabinet sub-committee which would consider them while evolving a plan for toning up the education system in the state.
The government would consider the suggestions of the educationists that loans could be raised from the World Bank for this purpose.
Professor Haragopal said that the budget for education which was 11 percent in the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh has come down to 6.4 percent and that there was an urgent need to increase it, to which the chief minister consented.
He recalled he and Deputy Chief Minister Batti Vikramarka studying in government schools when they were children. The educationists who attended the meeting included PL Visweswara Rao, Aldas Janaiah, Padmaja Shah, Lakshminarayana and former IAS officer Akunuri Murali.
At a separate review meeting, the chief minister asked officials to work on a bill to be introduced in the ensuing budget of the State Assembly for the establishment of Telangana Skill University.
The state government is setting up the skill university with the objective of providing job opportunities to the students by upskilling or providing fresh skills in training as per the requirements of the industries. Revanth added that the government is ready to provide adequate funds for the establishment and maintenance of the skill university.
After studying the functioning of skill universities in Delhi and Haryana, the State Industries department prepared a model draft. Special Chief Secretary to Industry Jayesh Ranjan presented a powerpoint presentation on the courses to be offered in the university, each course’s duration, requirement of infrastructure, funds, and collaboration with various companies.
The chief minister decided to name the new university ‘Telangana Skill University’.
Skill University will be established in partnership with private companies (in PPP model). It was decided to set up the institution as a self-sustaining non-profit organization.
Along with degree courses with three to four years duration, the university will also offer one-year diploma courses and certificate courses for three to four months. New courses have been selected according to the future needs of various sectors and industries which are rapidly developing in Telangana.
With a total of 17 priority sectors identified, initially, the university will offer training in Pharma, construction, banking finance services, e-commerce and logistics, retail, animation, visual effects, gaming and comics.
Each course is linked to the participation of a well-known company in the respective field and the government will enter into an MoU with the companies. The university will provide training to 2,000 people in the first year. A facility to provide training for 20,000 people every year will be developed in a phased manner.
The chief minister and officials discussed the proposal to set up regional campuses (satellite campuses) in district centres along with the main campus at the Engineering Staff College campus in Hyderabad. However, Revanth pointed out that the students will prefer and compete to join the Hyderabad campus instead of choosing the district centres.
He asked the officials to make arrangements to provide training for all in Hyderabad only and provide the required infrastructure facilities at the NAC campus and other premises.
Officials have been also asked to visit and inspect the facilities at Swami Ramananda Tirtha Rural Institute in Bhoodan Pochampally.
The chief minister stressed the need to focus more on the sectors where the demand for jobs is high and provide more seats in pharma since the demand for job opportunities in pharma companies is higher in the state.
He directed the officials to envisage plans to provide job opportunities to the students soon after the completion of the courses. For this, the officials were asked to hold talks with various companies in advance.
He instructed the officials to examine the procedures followed by other universities and finalize the organizational structure of the new skills university. He ordered the officials to prepare the draft in tune with the decisions taken in the meeting.
(Edited by Sumavarsha Kandula)
