Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has announced that a new education policy would be introduced soon in the state to “revive the education sector that was ruined during the 10-year Bharat Rashtra Samithi regime in the state”.

Appealing to the teaching fraternity to join hands with the state government to strengthen the education sector as well as to help in the “reconstruction” of Telangana State, the Chief Minister stressed that the proposed education policy will bring many reforms for providing quality education to the marginalised sections as well. He was speaking at the Teachers’ Day celebrations here on Friday.

The Chief Minister mentioned that he had been holding the education portfolio for reviving the key sector. Although many chief ministers kept Revenue, Finance and Irrigation departments under their control, because of his concern over the “weakening education system”, he had been holding on to the education portfolio. Revanth Reddy said that an official committee had been constituted to make recommendations for the revival of the education sector.

Taking exception to some opposition leaders’ comments against him for holding the education portfolio, Revanth said that the erstwhile government had made the promise of “providing free KG to PG education to the poor” but did not keep it. Teacher recruitment too was stopped in 2017. The People's Government recruited 11,000 teachers in just 55 days of coming to power.

The Chief Minister criticised the KCR government for promoting education as a profitable business. The Universities were left completely dysfunctional by not appointing teaching staff. The famous Osmania University and Kakatiya Universities lost their glory in the last regime, he charged.

Revanth Reddy claimed that the enrollment of students in government schools had been increasing after the people's government assumed power.

The enrollment increased by 3 lakhs. At present, 24 lakh students were studying in 27,000 government schools, while the number of students studying in 10,000 private schools was 34 lakhs, he said.

Stating that only education will change the destiny of students, the Chief Minister said that teachers should play a key role in ensuring a bright future for students.

"Let us all pledge to develop government schools to such an extent that they can compete with corporate institutions," he exhorted.

To improve skills, the government was building Young India Residential Schools as the “world's best model” and had set up a Skills University to provide skills to unemployed youth.

Teachers, including those in rural areas, must identify and encourage students interested in sports and create awareness that excelling in sports will also lead to a better future, he suggested. Another big responsibility of the teaching community was to create awareness among students on the need to stay away from drugs. The Chief Minister said that the government had already established Eagle Force to crack down on drug trafficking and ganja smuggling in Telangana, he added.