Quality education need of the hour

Hyderabad: The State government has announced that it would consolidate existing facilities and strengthen them to meet the needs of quality education and make students employable.

As part of the consolidation and stabilization, the government has proposed to entrust the responsibility of all institutions with an exception in the areas of medical, agriculture and pharma to the Education Department.

Presenting the Budget 2016-17 in the State Legislative Assembly on Monday, Finance Minister E Rajender said the government firmly believed that education was an important sector like health and that no State could achieve social transformation without making its citizens educated and healthy.

“Education empowers the poor,” he said. “Children of the rich anyway go to good schools. The government is taking steps for providing education to all, books, clothes and food to the students belonging to SC, ST, minority and other backward classes,” he said.

The Finance Minister said the government was determined to revamp the entire education system in the State. Further, he said, SC, ST and BC hostels were proposed to be converted into residential schools in a phased manner. He also proposed to entrust maintenance of sanitation facilities in schools to respective the gram panchayats.

Allocating Rs 1,694 crore under plan and Rs 9,044 crore under non-plan of the budget, he said that in addition to the secondary, higher and technical education, the government would spend on medical education, agricultural and veterinary education, education for minorities, SC/ST Residential Schools, welfare hostels and other provisions which were not part of the demands for grants of the Education Department. He stated that though considerable amount of money was being spent every year, there was no visible improvement in the quality of education.