Municipal Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K.T. Rama Rao said that Telangana achieved an unparalleled record establishing more than 1,000 new residential schools in the last nine years for the poor and downtrodden sections.
“Be it school education, higher education, technical education, or medical education, Telangana is setting a new benchmark in terms of quality of education and infrastructure,” he said. Highlighting that the BRS government under the leadership of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao empowered Telangana with the highest number of Gurukuls in India, he said the total figure of BC, SC, ST, and Minority Gurukuls put together is at 1000 plus. This includes residential schools, junior colleges, and degree colleges.
The BRS working president stated that every year, ₹1.25 lakhs is spent on each student in these Gurukuls to impart quality education, to provide nutritious food, accommodation, and other facilities.
KTR said that the underprivileged students who studied in these institutions have secured good ranks in many competitive exams, secured seats in premier institutes like IITs, IIMs, reputed Indian universities, and also in foreign universities. “This social welfare residential education setup is a boon to the marginalized sections and seats in these institutions are the most sought after,” he added.
Giving details of the budget allocated to gurukuls and students in last decade, he said that in 2013-14 only Rs. 280 crores were allocated while Rs 2,980 crores were allocated in 2022-23. The number of gurukuls increased from 293 in 2014 to more than 1000. The number of admitted students increased to six lakhs from 1.7 lakhs.
The Minister said that the ‘Mana Ooru - Mana Badi’ programme empowered the State by reshaping the government schools and it helped in the comprehensive development and strengthening of Infrastructure facilities in the government schools. “A total of 26,065 schools are being developed in three phases with a total budget outlay of Rs. 7,289 crores,” he added.
Talking about the development of higher educational institutions, KTR said that the Gross Enrolment Ratio of Telangana in Government Degree Colleges is 36.2, which is higher than the national average. He also added that the admissions in the Government Degree Colleges are up by 68% due to course redesign.
KTR highlighted that 21 new government medical colleges were established after 2014 and 8 more were sanctioned. KTR said that the BRS government also started many study circles, libraries, established TASK (Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge), and opened skill development centres across the state.
