Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy released Rs.708.68crore towards Jagananna Vidya Deevena for total fee reimbursement for the quarter October-December 2023. The amount would be directly credited into the joint bank accounts of 9,44,666 students and their mothers.
Addressing a huge public meeting before releasing the amount with the click of a button here on Friday, the Chief Minister said that Jagananna Vidya Deevena (JVD) and other schemes help students from poor families to pursue higher education, get professional degrees and boldly face the competitive job market.
While elaborating on the educational reforms and their tangible results, the Chief Minister took TDP President Chandrababu, his foster son Pawan Kalyan and their friendly media to task for opposing reforms in the education sector.
It’s not the right to education but the right to quality education is what we need. Government has been striving to reform the system introducing English Medium, digitization, modern and emerging subjects like AI and IB besides upgrading school infrastructure through Nadu-Nedu so that our Government school students receive quality education, pursue global courses and face the competition easily in the world job market.
If we continue the momentum of the present educational reforms, we will find our students working in top companies and attaining high positions after a few years, he said.
However, it is unfortunate that TDP President Chandrababu Naidu, his foster son and their friendly media have declared a war on the reforms in education while their children are pursuing education in English medium, the Chief Minister said,
Unlike during the TDP rule, the Government has brought more students into the purview of Vidya Deevena to prevent families from falling into debt trap, he said, adding that the scheme covers 93 per cent of the students pursuing professional courses.
The Chief Minister said that the Government has been making huge investments in the educational sector as it believes that education is the only weapon that eradicates poverty.
Under JVD, Government has been making regular quarterly payments soon after completion of the quarter and so far, it has spent Rs. 12,610 crore benefiting 29,65,930 students pursuing ITI, Polytechnic, Degree, Engineering, Medicine and other professional courses, he said, adding that Government incurred Rs.72,919crore on educational reforms in the last 57 months.
While Jagan is taking four steps forward in reforming the educational and other sectors, Naidu and his supporters are trying to pull him back by eight steps. People should realize that all welfare programmes and reforms would stop if Naidu is at the helm.
Not only in other sectors, even in the educational sector, we are facing a class war from the feudal forces led by Naidu and his supporters, he said, adding that the results of the reforms are tangible in our government school students representing the country in UN forums.
Jagan is the only Chief Minister who has gone into the details of the school and college curriculum and taken steps to introduce modern and emerging courses like AI, verticals like risk management, machine learning, virtual and augmented reality, investment banking and management, robotics, virtual building designs, intellectual communication, risk return and supply chain management.
Despite serving three terms as Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu never paid attention towards education and instead of reforming the system, he diluted the Government schools for promoting corporate schools like Narayana and Chaitanya, the Chief Minister said and asked the people to be wary of the evil designs of Naidu and his supporters.
He called upon the people to become his soldiers and stand by him in the ensuing days if they feel they are benefitted by various welfare schemes. Some of the students who benefitted from JVD also spoke on the occasion.
