The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : YSR flays critics of rural public schools

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 06, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

YSR flays critics of rural public schools

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy has said the criticism against Rural Residential Public Schools proposed by the State Government did not carry weight because people indulging in it lacked knowledge of the programme.

The schools were aimed to show a path to corporate entities to fulfil their social responsibility by investing in them.

There was no question of Government abdicating its responsibility of taking education to all, he told a meeting, to mark the official World Teachers Day celebrations here on Friday.

The Chief Minister spoke of a major plan to upgrade the standards of Government-run schools with an expenditure of Rs. 30,000 crore in the next six years.

The amount would be spent on creating full-fledged facilities, including hostels and computer education, in 6,000 of the 10,000 Government schools.

The objective was to make every school a residential campus.

The first phase of the programme would be launched this year in 740 residential schools for SC, ST, BCs and minorities. About Rs. 500 crore would be spent on them this year and another Rs. 1,000 crore next year.

Dr. Reddy said the Government had realised its responsibility to reach out to 80 per cent of population which did not access quality education.

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