As a part of its education policy under which no student is denied higher education due to financial constraints, the Andhra Pradesh government Friday credited support money equivalent to college fees into bank accounts of mothers to encourage them to keep sending their children to school and college. 🗞️ Subscribe Now: Get Express Premium to access the best Election reporting and analysis 🗞️ Education department officials said that the support money given to mothers on a trial basis earlier has resulted in fewer dropouts from school and it encouraged more families to enroll their children. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday credited Rs 1,024 crore into the bank accounts of mothers of 10,68,150 students under the second installment of the scheme "Jagananna Vasathi Deevena’’ for the academic year 2021-22. Asserting that poverty should not deprive a child from pursuing higher education, the CM said that only education can help eradicate poverty and backwardness of the society. "In order to provide quality education for the students and to ease the financial burden on parents, the government has come up with Vidya Deevena for reimbursing the college fees and Vasathi Deevena for boarding and hostel fees to the eligible students,’’ he said. He stated that many revolutionary reforms were brought in the education sector, right from improvising midday meals, to revamping infrastructure in schools and introduction of bi-lingual textbooks. Officials said that the Gross Enrolment Ratio in colleges has increased to 35.2 percent in AP, registering a growth of 8.64 percent against the national growth of 3 percent. Officials said that the improved menu under the mid-day meal scheme is healthy, nutritious, and tasty. The budget for mid-day meals scheme is now nearly Rs 2,000 crore. The fee reimbursement or financial support scheme to encourage mothers to send their children for higher education and prevent dropouts was first tested in July 2021 when the state government for the first time started crediting students’ college fee directly into the bank accounts of mothers of the wards. Education Department officials said that when a student’s parents, especially the mother, do not feel the financial burden of sending their children to college, it is more likely they will continue to study. An official said that the fee reimbursement scheme has been designed to make education accessible to the poor, creating an opportunity for those students who want to pursue higher education without burdening their families. Although the fee reimbursement scheme for socially and economically-backward school and college students was launched before the state was bifurcated, it has been tweaked over the years by various governments, but this is the first time that eligible students’ mothers are receiving the reimbursed fees in their bank accounts. The AP government has also resolved to reimburse 100 per cent fees of eligible beneficiary students who are pursuing B.Tech, ITI, and Polytechnic. The government changed the rules to include students from economically backward classes, BC, Kapu, and physically challenged.
