Hyderabad: Starting this academic year, the government and local body schools will prepare students in life skills also, and KGBVs and Model Schools will foster entrepreneurship skills among students right from the young age.

Two new programmes – ‘Chelimi’ aimed at preparing students to face life challenges including handling pressure, stress and failure, and ‘Ankuram’, a business innovator programme to instill entrepreneurship mindset and bring out innovative business ideas, have been launched by Education Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy here on Wednesday.

The ‘Chelimi’ programme will be implemented in a government and local body high school in districts on a pilot basis and students will be taught social and emotional skills and make right decisions.

Unlike regular teaching, these skills will be taught in creative ways including arts, theatre, and storytelling. For this, Class VI and VII students will have 30 periods in the entire academic year and the School Education department has trained the teachers in understanding emotions of the students and techniques to handle them.

The ‘Chelimi’ programme has been taken up to prepare students to face various life challenges besides developing innovative thinking to solve problems, the Minister said.

The business innovator programme has been launched for Class XI students in 35 KGBVs and Model Schools in eight districts and students are encouraged to create projects based on their innovative ideas and select ideas will be turned into business models.

A total of 3,000 students are expected to take part in this six month programme, which will be implemented by the School Education department in partnership with Udyam Learning Foundation and Inquilab Foundation. A total of Rs 27.30 crore fund has been allotted for the initiative.

The programmes would be introduced in more government run schools in the next academic year, the Minister added.

Telangana State Planning Board Vice Chairman B Vinod Kumar, Education department Secretary Vakati Karuna, and School Education director A Sridevasena among others participated in the event.