They want to trouble me politically, but they should realise that they cannot play with the future of the students, says the Chief Minister
They want to trouble me politically, but they should realise that they cannot play with the future of the students, says the Chief Minister
Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has alleged that a section of media is systematically churning out negative stories on English as medium of instruction and the Education Department only to strike at the confidence and morale of the students and their parents.
“They don’t want the poor to pursue education in English medium. Hence they are resorting to false propaganda,” Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said while addressing a review meeting on school education on Thursday.
Earlier, the officials informed the Chief Minister that a few newspapers had published reports stating that textbooks were not available despite commencement of the second semester.
“The second semester begins in December, and it is clearly mentioned in the academic calendar. The reports are misleading the students and their parents,” the officials said.
Responding to it, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said that the objective of these newspapers was crystal clear. “They want to trouble me politically. Unfortunately, the common people, parents and students are suffering due to the political tussle. These newspapers should realise that they cannot play with the future of the students even if they don’t like me,” Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said.
Student strength
The Chief Minister asked the officials to implement the subject-teacher concept more effectively. The reforms in the education sector helped the student strength grow from 37 lakh in 208-19 to 42 lakh now, he said.
“Nadu-Nedu has been implemented in 15,000 of the 45,000 government schools. It will be implemented in another 22,000 schools this year. The remaining schools will be covered next year,” the Chief Minister said.
CBSE affiliation
Emphasising that complete digitalisation of every classroom was the last part of the Nadu-Nedu programme, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy asked the officials to accord high priority to implementing the ‘Goru Muddha’ and other schemes. He also directed the officials to take steps for obtaining CBSE affiliation for all schools implementing the Nadu-Nedu programme. He further directed them to pay special attention to training students who would be taking the CBSE examinations in 2024-25.
Performance Grading Index
The Chief Minister congratulated the department for its efforts in finding a place among the seven States and Union Territories in the Performance Grading Index (PGI) for school education for the year 2020-21 released by the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India.
Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma, Special Chief Secretary (School Education) B. Rajasekhar, Finance Secretary N. Guljar, School Education Commissioner S. Suresh Kumar, Commissioner (Basic Infrastructure, School Education) K. Bhaskar, Commissioner (Intermediate Education) M.V. Seshagiri Rao, Director (Mid-Day Meal Scheme) Meena, and SSA Additional Project Director B. Srinivasa Rao were present.