Telangana To Send Select Teachers on Foreign Study Tours, Says Revanth

Hyderabad: Telangana will fund overseas study tours for government teachers every year, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy announced on Thursday, during an interaction with participants of the Finland and Germany teacher exposure visit and educational exchange programme.

The hour-long programme was held at MCRHRDI in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, where Revanth Reddy also directed officials to submit a mandal-wise plan for the next academic year by December and said the state spends Rs 1.08 lakh on each student annually.

"From now on, we will provide teachers with opportunities to go abroad for study tours," said Revanth Reddy and asked officials to treat each mandal as one cluster in the plan for the next academic year.

Students could succeed only when schools combined education and discipline, the Chief Minister added. He also expressed confidence that the Congress government would remain in power until 2034 and he would continue as the Chief Minister until then.

Revanth Reddy said parents spend about Rs 50,000 on each child in a private school, against the state's annual expenditure of Rs 1.08 lakh per government-school student. He asked officials and teachers to examine why families continued to prefer private schools. Government schools had enrolled one lakh additional students this year, an increase he described as an achievement.

Revanth Reddy rejected opposition demands that he give up the education portfolio. He cited breakfast from Nursery to Class XII, teacher recruitment and promotions, the conversion of ITIs into ATCs, the Skills University and the appointment of corporate heads to its board. He also referred to midday meals and uniform distribution for students and said the government wanted them to acquire skills alongside education.

"Our vision is for teachers to share their experience with the students," Revanth Reddy said, adding that the government would address the teachers' grievances. He also asked their associations to take up student problems as well as their own.

Revanth Reddy argued that English alone did not explain China's global position. He said India had looked towards the United States for 25 years, but it should now focus on Germany, Japan and Singapore, where more opportunities were available. "Backwardness is not linked to assets or social status. Lack of education is the true form of backwardness," the Chief Minister said.

The Chief Minister criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the country's debt burden and claimed that prime ministers from Independence to 2014 had accumulated Rs 50 lakh crore in debt. Modi had added Rs 151 lakh crore between 2014 and 2026, he said. Revanth Reddy placed the country's total outstanding debt at Rs 201 lakh crore.

Former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru laid the base for education and irrigation after Independence, Revanth Reddy said, adding that Nehru regarded education as the basis of social change and described irrigation projects as "modern temples". He attributed Telangana's production of 28.5 million metric tonnes of paddy to Nehru's foresight.