Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on March 30 visited the Mid-Lab syndication work at MHRD as part of Vision 2029.
He visited the education and retail labs and reviewed the lab work. Later, the Chief Minister interacted with the lab participants and stakeholders from retail and education labs.
The Chief Minister assured on taking every key decision required to implement the labs’ suggestion by the time the labs are completed. He appreciated PEMANDU for undertaking a new and innovative exercise through labs, by involving private, public and NGOs. Speaking on retail labs, he said Andhra Pradesh holds potential to emerge as a sourcing hub for all retail chains. ‘No other state holds advantage in retail, AP has connectivity and resources to emerge as retail destination’, he added.
On education labs, Naidu said, ‘We aim to achieve 100% literacy through quality education and upgradation of skill, e-literacy, physical literacy. Every person in the state must be physically fit’. He added that the AP Fiber Grid will connect all rural schools and improve better learning conditions in English and Telugu.
Earlier, the retail lab work streams targets were explained to the CM. The labs focused on increasing the income of MSMEs and SHGs by enhancing their quality and reach. Through the initiatives proposed by the organized retail lab, the government aims to increase the income of 70,000 MSMEs and 10 lakh SHGs by 50% by 2019. The lab suggested setting up Andhra Pradesh Marketing Facilitation Centre, giving boost to Made in AP brand.
In a bid to make Andhra Pradesh a key retail destination in India, the lab discussed initiatives to produce 500 Made in AP products to reach global retailers. The labs also explored ways to generate investment of Rs 5,028 crore and create employment opportunities to 25,000 people by 2020.
Given that Andhra Pradesh has an advantage on suitable infrastructure to emerge as a retail destination, the organized retail labs suggested setting up of urban retail park in major cities and semi-urban/rural retail parks across the state.
The unorganized retail work stream observed that the unorganized sector constitutes 92% of Andhra Pradesh’s retail sector. Of this, 33% is petty businesses, in which kirana shops comprise 25%. Through the involvement of stakeholders and kirana shop owners, the unorganized retail labs targets to improve the livelihood of 50,000 kirana shop owners in all mandals in Andhra Pradesh by 2019.
The labs identified existing business gaps and identified initiatives for improvement. The key recommendations were to improve and modernize existing infrastructure, while strengthening management and operational practices. The labs observed that the unorganized retailer’s average incomes, post transformation, will surpass the state’s average per capita income.
Given that Andhra Pradesh aims to emerge as an education and knowledge hub, the education labs mooted effective monitoring and assessment of student learning outcomes. They also laid special emphasis on strengthening teacher quality and uplifting the school system, by improving parental engagement, Mana Bhavitha, Anganwadi Baata and frequent home visits.
The labs noted that out of 55,607 Anganwadi centres, 84.4% are in rural areas. It also pointed out that there is a need for single and standardised assessment to evaluate quality of the pre-school education in the state. Existing 40,222 Anganwadi workers and 1,030 supervisors will undergo up-skilling programme, thus benefitting 14 lakhs pre-schoolers in the state.
In a bid to strengthen teacher quality, the primary education labs suggested smart multi-grade and multi-level teaching methods. ‘Class in a box’ toolkit for teachers was proposed to make classes activity-based. In this regard, school grading will be taken up and best practices from top-rated schools will be adopted across the state. By effectively strengthening the primary education, the government aims to become one of the top 10 states in English, Maths and Science by 2018 and top 5 states in 2021.
The secondary education lab suggested remediation classes for non-performing students through tech mentoring and community empowerment. It also proposed a comprehensive platform for teachers to upskill their abilities.
Source: telugupeople.com
