Six lakh students enroll themselves in govt schools this year in Andhra

The number of students enrolled in government and government-aided schools went up to 40,84,983 by November 3, 2020.

Amravati: The overwhelming response to the government schools due to improvement in the education standards has resulted in a shortage of textbooks for these schools in Andhra Pradesh, officials have said.

According to the official release, as many as six lakh students enrolled in government and aided schools this year owing to the initiatives undertaken by the YSRC government to improve the facilities and standards there. The textbooks were printed based on the 2019-20 data, with a five per cent buffer, but it still created a shortage.

The number of students enrolled in government and government-aided schools went up to 40,84,983 by November 3, 2020, the release stated.

“The drastic increase in the number is primarily due to lakhs of students choosing to enroll themselves in government schools over exorbitant private institutions. Most of these students got transferred during the months of November, December, January and February, i.e even after schools were reopened,” the release reads.

The printing of text and workbooks was concluded by April 2020 with a five per cent buffer. The spike in the number of students opting for government institutions surpassed all expectations.

After a discussion which was attended by representatives of the School Education department of the government of Andhra Pradesh and representatives of the government’s printing section, an additional amount of seven crores was sanctioned for the purpose of printing the required number of text and workbooks which would be supplied to the 4,11,427 students who shifted to government and government-aided schools post-November.

The books are expected to be distributed to the students within 15 days.

“As on September 30, 2019, a total of 38,97,156 students were registered in government and government-aided schools. As the government was expecting the number to rise, owing to the initiatives taken by it to better the standard of education provided at government educational institutions, books for as many as 40,92,014 students were printed i.e; five per cent more than the existing figure of 38,97,156 as on the cut-off date,” it stated.