The 2022-23 academic year is likely to be a turbulent one for school education in Andhra Pradesh. The YSR Congress Party government is keen on rolling out radical reforms at an accelerated pace. Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has been saying that a child who walks into a government school should walk out as a global citizen and face the competitive world with confidence. To give shape to his vision, the School Education Department is focused on conceptual learning instead of rote learning. Emphasis is being laid not on evaluating the students on a three-hour examination but on their classroom participation, projects, communication skills, leadership skills and extra-curricular activities. The Department has been tasked with implementing a slew of government initiatives in sync with the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, this academic year, starting July 5.
Besides the annual exercise of printing and supplying textbooks, officials are burning the midnight oil to complete training teachers in English; expedite the process of mapping Classes 3-5 in primary schools in the government sector to high schools located nearby; re-apportion teaching staff; implement Section 12(1)(C) of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which mandates private, unaided schools to reserve 25% of seats in entry-level classes for children belonging to weaker sections; and bring select schools under the CBSE syllabus.
Educationists say there is too much to do and too little time. They have raised serious concerns about the “incoherence” of the initiatives. They worry that no homework was done before these initiatives were introduced and that the reforms lack sound footing.
