New Delhi: With a view to promoting higher education among deprived, Andhra Pradesh Government released Rs 912.71 crore to 9,55,662 students studying degree, polytechnic, ITI, engineering and medicine courses under the Jagananna Vasathi Deevena Scheme. The amount is meant for boarding and lodging charges of student beneficiaries and it will be directly credited into the bank accounts of their mothers.

Jagananna Vasathi Deevena is one of the welfare schemes offered by the Andhra Pradesh Government to provide financial aid to students from economically weaker backgrounds pursuing post-secondary education. This scheme aims to improve the Gross Enrolment Rate (GER), provide quality higher education, and ensure continuation of students in the stream of higher education.

The Andhra Government has so far spent Rs 14,223 crore for implementing Vasathi Deevena and Vidya Deevena for the benefit of students.

Jagananna Vasathi Deevena has been introduced to supplement Vidya Deevena to enable students to continue their education without any roadblock. The government has so far credited Rs 4,275.76 crore into the bank accounts of the mothers of 25,17,245 student beneficiaries under Vasathi Deevena.

The scheme ensures payment of Rs 10,000 each for ITI students, Rs 15,000 for polytechnic and Rs 20,000 for degree, engineering and medicine courses in two instalments every year. The government has claimed that the dropout rate has come down, while Gross Enrolment Ratio has gone up to 72 per cent from 32.4 per cent in 2018-19.

The Government officials said while 40 lakh students are now studying in government schools, the number of students pursuing engineering has gone up to 1,20,000 from 87,000. The number of dropouts in undergraduate courses has also declined to 22,387 from 81,813 in the last four years.

The colleges are now conducting job-oriented courses, skill development and self-certification online programmes while organisations like Microsoft are training 1.40 lakh students in cyber security and other courses.

The government has tied up with Melbourne University and top institutes in Germany to improve the quality of education in the State. Internship has also been made mandatory for degree students to make them industry-ready. /BI/