Moral values key to making AP education model No 1: Lokesh

Kakinada: Education, IT and Electronics Minister Nara Lokesh said the Andhra Pradesh model of school education could become the best in the country if academic development was backed by strong moral values among students.

He was the chief guest at the Bharateeyam personality development programme organised under the guidance of spiritual speaker and AP government adviser on moral values Chaganti Koteswara Rao at the Akundi Lakshmi Memorial Gosala premises at Thimmapuram in Kakinada Rural.

Speaking on the occasion, Lokesh said the government had, for the first time in the country, published advertisements in newspapers and on television featuring photographs of students who had studied in government schools and secured good ranks. He said the response to the initiatives in government education was encouraging, with 1.10 lakh students shifting from private schools to government schools this academic year.

Admissions in Intermediate courses had also increased by 10,000, he added. The government was also giving importance to value-based education with the support of Chaganti Koteswara Rao, he recalled.

Lokesh said Chaganti's spiritual discourses had reached almost every household in the two Telugu States and added that he experienced positive energy whenever he met him.

Lokesh thanked Chaganti for organising the Bharateeyam programme. Recalling India's rich intellectual heritage, Lokesh said Indians had demonstrated their capabilities to the world centuries ago through personalities such as Charaka in medicine, Chanakya in statecraft, Aryabhata in mathematics, Patanjali in yoga and Dhanvantari in Ayurveda. He said Indians were respected wherever they went in the world and attributed this to the country's family system and social values. Referring to Chaganti as a prominent figure associated with moral values, Lokesh said Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had appointed him as adviser on moral values. Books prepared by Chaganti were being provided to students, while children were being taught from an early age to respect elders and women, he said.

The objective was to prepare students to accept both success and failure with an equal mind, Lokesh said. He pointed out that about 90 per cent of a child's brain development takes place before the age of six and stressed the need to provide children with education, sports and moral values during the formative years. Such an approach would help the country produce responsible citizens, he said. Lokesh said social change could be brought about from the classroom itself and that this was one of the reasons why he had chosen the Education Department. He said education should remain free from political influence.

He pointed out that uniforms, books, bags, belts and shoes supplied to students did not carry political party colours or photographs of the Chief Minister or himself. Countries across the world had taken two generations of sustained effort to achieve development, he said, referring to Singapore's transformation from a fishing village into a developed nation. India was also progressing rapidly under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said. Chaganti Koteswara Rao, addressing the students, said the country's freedom struggle was not merely a chapter of the past but the heritage of every Indian. Great personalities had sacrificed their lives to secure freedom for the country and it was the responsibility of the present generation not only to enjoy that freedom but also to understand its value and protect it, he said. He said places associated with the freedom struggle, including the jails where freedom fighters were imprisoned, memorials and places where major struggles took place, should be treated with the same respect as temples. Visiting such places would create interest among children and help them understand history, which in turn would strengthen their sense of patriotism, he said.

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