Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S.Jagan Mohan Reddy would deposit Rs 703 crore directly into the bank accounts of the mothers of 9.95 lakh students, under Jagananna Vidya Deevena programme for its January-March quarter, 2023, payment.
This would be done at the click of a button by the CM during his public meeting at Kovvur in East Godavari on Wednesday.Home minister Taneti Vanitha said Jagan Reddy would reach dais from the helipad through a road show.
The state government has so far paid Rs 14,912.43 crore including the arrears of Rs 1,778 crore of the previous Telugu Desam government from 2017 onwards, under the Jagananna Vidya Deevena and Jagananna Vasathi Deevena schemes.
As part of the Jagananna Deevena scheme, the state provides financial support to poor students to pursue higher education by providing them a total fee reimbursement on a quarterly basis.The amount will be directly remitted into the bank accounts of mothers of students after completion of the quarter to help the students pursue ITI, polytechnic, degree, engineering medicine and other courses.
This is done without imposing any limit on the number of eligible children to avail the benefit in a family.
The Jagananna Vasathi Deevana scheme helps students get financial assistance for boarding and lodging expenses.
The assistance is fixed at Rs 20,000 for students pursuing degree, engineering and medicine courses, Rs 15,000 for polytechnic students and Rs 10,000 for ITI students in two installments every year.
The financial assistance under this scheme will be extended to all children in a family irrespective of their number.
The Jagananna government has revised the curriculum by including four-year UG Honors Degree along with job-oriented modules and 30 per cent skill development courses to increase the employability of the students and to meet the industrial needs.
As part of the curriculum, online verticals and a 10-month mandatory internship have also been introduced.
The government claimed that the reforms initiated by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government have started yielding results.Accordingly, the number of students who passed Intermediate but failed to get enrolled for higher education in 2018-19 was 81,813.
This reduced to 22,387 in 2022-23 due to the two schemes — Jagananna Vidya Deevena and Jagananna Vasathi Deevena.
The gross enrolment ratio for 2018-19 was 32.4 per cent and it has gone up to 70 per cent by now.The average number of girls enrolling in colleges per 100 boys has gone up to 94 in 2020-21 from 81 in 2018-19.
The campus placements have also witnessed a quantum jump from 37,000 in 2018-19 to 85,000 in 2021-22.So far this year, 80,000 students secured jobs in campus placements.
The Jagan Mohan Reddy government has distributed tabs with Byju’s content to Class VIII students and teachers.
Meanwhile, the state government has appealed to the mothers to pay college fee within a week of 10 days after the amount is credited into their accounts.
It cautioned them that in case they failed to do so, the next installment of fee reimbursement will be paid directly into the accounts of colleges.