The NDA government, right within its first six months of tenure has placed prime focus on public policy making and issue-based solution designing. This was observed in the dynamic changes that were brought in the sand and liquor policy adjustments recently. Now, it is the turn of the government to bring in another reform and this is pertaining to the education sector.
IT and Education Minister Nara Lokesh has now vowed to bring back a thoughtful program that was in effect back in 2018 when TDP was in power. This program pertains to a government-funded mid-day meal scheme at government intermediate colleges.
This program was initially formulated in 2018 by TDP with the intention to encourage more students to carry on with their studies at junior colleges as providing quality mid-day meals was seen as a good way to incentivize the same. But the YCP government halted this program almost immediately after coming to power.
Now, Lokesh vows to bring back this program. The observation he made yesterday was that a substantial number of students were dropping from studies after completing class X and this could be due to the economic conditions.
One way to address this and incentivize students and families to continue with higher studies is by providing mid-day meals at government colleges. The same was proposed by Lokesh yesterday and it is principally agreed to bring back this program, which is projected to bring down the dropouts percentage marginally.
This really is a thoughtful program aimed at possibly cutting down the dropout percentage at government junior colleges and improve the academic demographic of the state. The exact timeframe for the implementation of this project is yet to be determined.
Lokesh then proposed to hold a parent-teachers meeting state-wide on 7 December and stated even CM Chandrababu will be partaking in the same.