The Honorable Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday said that his government brought a plethora of major changes to the education and healthcare sectors. At the Assembly, the Honorable Chief Minister said that the amount is spent on education, which is an investment for a better future as it works for shaping the generation next into confident and competent youth for starting their careers, while drastic changes are for the medical and healthcare sector to reach out the needy. 

In conclusion of the short discussion on education and healthcare, the Honorable Chief Minister said that his government is striving for the right to English Medium and the right to higher education with incentives from pre-primary to college education in addition to the right to education. The Chief Minister commented that the previous government tried to push back the government schools into oblivion to benefit corporate schools with vested interests. 

Jagan Mohan Reddy said, “We have chalked out our priorities well and wanted to see that the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) is drastically improved by providing incentives and also revamping the schools under Nadu Nedu. We have instructed that 12 visible changes should be in place in the government schools which include, toilets, clean drinking water, repairs, tube lights and fans, furniture for students and teachers, green chalkboards, painting, English lab, compound wall, kitchen shed, additional rooms and digital interactive panels.” In addition, he told that even the pre-primary foundation schools and Anganwadi hostels are also being developed under the Nadu Nedu programme. In the first phase, 15,715 schools got revamped with a cost of Rs. 3,700 crore and the digitisation of classrooms will be in place from the next academic year. 

The second phase of modernization started as the honorable minister made a visual presentation of schools in Leader of Opposition Chandrababu Naidu’s birthplace Naravaripalle and Kuppam (Naidu's constituency) before and after taking up the Nadu Nedu programme. 

The Honorable Chief Minister said, “The GER in primary schools for 2015-16 in the state was very poor and we could increase it drastically through the schemes like Amma Vodi, Goru Muddha, Vidya Deevena, and Vasathi Devena. While government schools had 37.20 lakh students in 2018-19, the numbers increased to 44.29 lakh in 2021-22.” 

Amma Vodi has a distinct scheme under which mothers are incentivized for sending their children to school with Rs. 15,000 per annum with the rider of 75 percent attendance and Rs. 1,000 each should be contributed toward toilets and School Maintenance Funds for upkeeping of schools and during the three-years, Rs. 19,617 crores was spent under the scheme. 

The Honorable Minister said, “Under Gorumuddha, with a daily changing menu and nutritious food, the state has been spending Rs 1,800 crore while it was just Rs 450 crore annually by the previous government, which did not clear the dues of ayas and provisions as well.” 

Students received Vidya kanuka kits with a school bag, bilingual textbooks, workbooks, notebooks, three pairs of uniforms, shoes, two pairs of socks, a dictionary which cost a total of Rs. 886 crores. The minister announced that for Class 8 students and teachers, 5.18 lakh tabs will be given in November last week. 

The Honorable Chief Minister said, “The tabs would have a preloaded Byjus content which would serve as a home tutorial.” The Byjus content otherwise costs about Rs 24,000 and this would be given free of cost. 

Another incentive, Vidaya Deevena is a full fee reimbursement which will be given along with Vasathi Devena and this takes care of the hostel and mess charges which total an amount of Rs. 11,717 crores. 

YSR Village Clinics and the concept of Family Doctor are being worked out so that village clinics and PHCs take care of preventive medicine while CHCs, are and district hospitals take care of the curative treatment. Every mandal will be having four doctors and two ambulances with one doctor and an ambulance touring villages assigned and the regular visits would be familiarizing them with the patients and their ailments while developing a rapport. 

Of 10,032 village clinics, 3,673 are ready and an amount of Rs. 1,692 crores was spent and the project will be completed by the year-end. Staff recruitment will be completed by October 15. 

Jagan Mohan Reddy disclosed an addition of 11 teaching hospitals, and another 17 hospitals are coming up.