Chief Minister K Rosaiah on Monday approved a proposal for free uniforms for all girl students, and for Below Poverty Line (BPL) Boys in all the government schools in the state. The Central and the state Governments will share the expenditure of Rs. 210 crore towards the scheme under a 65:35 ratio, till 2015. Later, the state government will bear the expenditure.
The proposal will benefit over 52 lakh students in the state, and, according to the CM, will also help weavers, tailors, APCO and SETWIN, by generating employment.
In a review meeting on the functioning of the Primary Education, SSA, Adult Education departments with ministers and officials at the Secretariat, the CM directed officials to take a final decision on introducing English as a subject from the 1st class onwards.
Officials informed the CM that the following proposals have been approved in the supplementary plan to implement the provisions of the RTE Act during 2010-11, with an outlay of Rs. 500 crore:
- Providing uniforms to 52 lakh children studying in government schools, with a budget of Rs. 210 crore
- Construction of 5,889 additional classrooms, with an estimated cost of Rs. 235 crore
- Providing furniture to 1,137 Mandal Resource Centres and 6,973 School Complexes, at Rs. 18 crore
- Positioning 4,998 school complex coordinators
- Engaging data entry operators, MIS coordinators and accountants cum support staff to all Mandal Resource Centres
- Positioning 2,927 part-time teachers in upper primary schools to teach art, physical and work education
Meanwhile, orders have been issued by the department to fill up the vacancies of DIET Lecturers with qualified teachers on a deputation basis till the unified rules are finalized, and the total backlog has been cleared by Finance Dept. by releasing an amount of Rs. 403 crore.
Out of 50,156 schools which do not have power connections, 33,564 schools have been provided with electricity; children's help lines established at selected railway stations and major bus stations to track street children without adult protection and put them in transit homes; mobile science labs have been operationalised in all districts to demonstrate scientific experiments to children; and 4 transit homes have been established in Hyderabad to enrol street, migrant and homeless children.
31 work-site schools have been established in the outskirts of Hyderabad city for the education of migrant children. 61,014 "Vidya Volunteers" have been positioned in all primary and upper primary schools in the vacancies of teachers to ensure a proper Teacher Learning Process; RTE rules finalised; and an internal audit of all district units and sub-district units completed by 31st March 2010.
The CM congratulated the Primary Education Department since Andhra Pradesh was declared as the No. 1 State in the country to have completed the Statutory Audit well before the appointed time.
The chief minister also asked the department to complete the rationalisation of teachers as per the new norms, at the earliest. As per the RTE Act 2009, a teacher-pupil ratio of 1:30 and 1:35 needs to be maintained in all primary and upper-primary schools, respectively.
Out of 76,503 primary schools/sections, 30,440 (39.78%) have fewer teachers, whereas 10,606 (13.86%) have excessive teachers.
Meanwhile, the Centre sanctioned the Shakshar Bharat Program to Adilabad district on October 11. It sanctioned a Literacy Program to cover 75.95 lakh non-literates upto 2012. It proposes to take up 37.98 lakh non-literates in the first phase.
The AP State Literacy Mission Authority, Hyderabad, has been awarded the National Literacy Award "Satyen Maitra Memorial Literacy Award 2010" for its performance in Literacy.
With a vision to provide access to sustainable learner-centric quality school education coupled with skill upgradation through vocational training, the AP government permitted the Andhra Pradesh Open School Society (APOSS) to introduce an SSC-level course through the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) mode from the academic year 2008-09. 58,103 learners enrolled for 2008-09, and 45,189 enrolled for 2009-10, and 76,527 enrolled for the year 2010-11.
Minister for School Education Mohamed Ahmedullah; Special Chief Secretary, Primary Education Chandana Khan; State Project Director, SSA Mohd. Ali Rafat; Adviser Kondal Rao, Principal Secretary, Finance L V Subramaniam; and other officials attended the meeting.
Courtesy: INN