VIJAYAWADA: Education minister N. Lokesh has directed officials to launch awareness programmes across Andhra Pradesh on students’ mental health and stress.
Chairing a review meeting with school, higher education and skill development authorities on Wednesday, Lokesh stressed the need for a mission-mode initiative focusing on awareness, institutional support systems and guidance on mental health.
State project director B. Srinivasa Rao said a special tool, Care AP, had been developed and successfully piloted to monitor student mental health.
Lokesh directed officials to introduce training under the Heartfulness Yoga programme in 963 government schools in the first phase, covering 4.47 lakh students. Srinivasa Rao said 2,000 teachers would soon be trained at Kanha Shanti Vanam in Hyderabad to enable hybrid yoga classes this year and full physical sessions from next year.
He also highlighted upcoming training for science teachers at the Agastya Science Foundation in Kuppam.
Lokesh directed officials to focus on results, with a target of 90 per cent pass rates in Class X and Intermediate examinations. He stressed adherence to Key Performance Indicators and directed the implementation of Facial Recognition Systems to improve attendance in universities and colleges.
Commending teachers and officials for implementing the Mission March initiative, Lokesh said capacity-building for subject teachers lagging in syllabus delivery should be made mandatory. He reiterated the chief minister’s vision of achieving 100 per cent literacy under the Akshara Andhra programme by next year.
Reviewing skill development initiatives, Lokesh directed officials to establish 10 industry-linked ITI clusters in the first phase under the PM Sethu scheme, with support from the steel, renewable energy, aqua and pharma industries. Officials have been asked to prepare a 90-day action plan in consultation with entrepreneurs.
Skill development MD Ganesh Kumar said 5.43 lakh youths had been trained so far, with 1.72 lakh jobs facilitated through job fairs in the past two years.
Lokesh urged legislators and public representatives to participate in the fairs to expand employment opportunities.
The meeting was attended by principal secretary for human resources Syamala Rao, higher education director Narayan Bharat Gupta, Intermediate education director Ranjith Basha, school education director Tamim Ansaria, education infrastructure MD Deeven Reddy and state council of higher education chairman (in-charge) Vijayabhaskar, among others.
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