Andhra Pradesh: Parents asked to wage war against drug abuse

Vijayawada : On the lines of Public Private People’s Partnership (PPPP), the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to involve the parents on a large scale in not only monitoring the progress of their wards but also raging a war against the Drug menace.

In this direction, the state government on Saturday organised the world’s largest mega parent-teacher meeting of 45,094 government and government-aided schools across the state. While Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu launched the programme in Bapatla in which Human Resources Development Minister Nara Lokesh participated while Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan attended the Kadapa meeting.

Addressing the mega meeting, Naidu called upon the parents to cut down on the time they spend on the use of mobile phones and spend more time focusing on the progress of their wards. He said while technology has become essential, it also has a lot of negative impact. “Even human relations within the families were getting affected. Parents need to have full information about their children, what they are learning, where they are going, and what they are doing,” he said.

He asked them to interact with their children and create awareness about the drug menace and how it would ruin not only their life, but the life of the entire family. Naidu said the war against drugs should begin in schools. Legally whatever measures were required the government was taking but it needs a lot of awareness among the children and the parents must take that responsibility. He called upon the students also to use smart phones in a limited manner to enhance their subject knowledge and not for other things.

Naidu also said his government is set to bring major changes in the educational sector and as part of it, connectivity between parents and teachers has been brought into the picture. He announced that every year December 7 will be celebrated as the Mega Parent-Teacher Meeting Day. In addition, it would be mandatory for all schools to hold parent-teacher meetings once every quarter where the progress of the students should be reviewed.

“If you want to increase income, wealth must be created. If you want to create wealth, students should acquire knowledge,” he said. He noted that the state has 35 lakh students studying in over 44,000 government schools across the state.

Naidu said the education standards in the state had taken a beating in the last five years as the YSRCP government ignored the education sector. The Jagan regime has payment dues of Rs 6,500 crore about the education department. He alleged that not even a single DSC (District Selection Committee) was set up for recruiting teachers in government schools in the last five years.

“How will the educational standard improve without a teacher,” he wondered. Explaining the “Swarna Andhra Pradesh Vision 2047” aimed at increasing annual income from USD 42,000 to USD 43,000 (per annum), he said to make this a reality, the state must have youth empowered with various skills and for that quality education was a must.