YS Jagan Elated As English Medium For All implemented

AMARAVATI: English medium is being introduced at the primary school level by the government to change the way of life of children, said Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy after a discussion on the AP Education Act 1/1982 (Amendment Bill) 2019 in the Assembly on Thursday.

Similarly, the Chief Minister announced that special kits would be provided to all 36.10 lakh primary school children on June 1, just before the commencement of the academic year as part of Vidya Kanuka scheme for which Rs 487 crore has been allocated.

Though the Education Bill was passed in the previous Assembly session, it was sent back by the Legislative council with some amendments making selection of medium optional by the student or the parent. However, the Assembly rejected the amendments and passed the Bill unanimously. The Chief Minister said he was unable to understand why the Opposition members were disallowing the Bill which aimed at providing right to education to poor children.

He said children belonging to poor SC, ST, BC, Minorities and middle class families have been waiting for decades for the introduction of English medium in the government schools as they could not afford to go to private schools which were charging exorbitantly. However, no effort was made to provide them English medium education so far. Hence, the present government has taken this decision to provide it to the children to change their lifestyle, he added.

There are over 45,000 government schools in the state, but the number of government primary schools having English medium is less than 35 per cent it is 98.5% in private schools. Hence it can be seen that there has been conspiracy to deny English medium to children belonging to poor families all these years, and the present government has decided to change this trend, said the Chief Minister.

The Chief Minister said qualitative menu was added to the Mid-Day Meal for schoolchildren which was named as Goru Mudda scheme. He said by God’s grace and the blessings of the parents he would be able to bring about more welfare schemes for the people.