Page 26 - EW-January-2026

Education News

of the state’s 31 districts. “This led to Desam Party (TDP)
the establishment of eight new uni- is an alliance partner
versities in March 2023. Karnataka’s with the ruling BJP/
strained finances have made it im- NDA government now
possible for all 31 public universities in its third consecutive
to be equipped with functional mul- term at the Centre —
tidisciplinary departments, quality has the advantage of
infrastructure and faculty. One public the Centre’s financial
varsity for every three districts would support. Moreover
have been a better decision. Now the Andhra Pradesh/
incumbent state government needs to Naidu also has the
make the tough decision of consolidat- advantage of Nara
ing the number of state universities Lokesh, an alum of
and invite private sector CSR funding Carnegie Mellon and
to finance infrastructure upgradation. the Stanford School
Simultaneously, hiring of permanent Naidu (left) & Reddy: compulsory English medium education of Business — and
faculty as per UGC norms should not Naidu’s son and heir
be delayed further.” Since then, the two fraternal — as education minister. During the
While the academic and public states whose people share Telugu past 17 months in office, Lokesh has
backlash against the huge number of as a common language, have been rolled out several imaginative and
vacancies in government-run HEIs engaged in an intense race to emerge high-potential initiatives to imple-
has prompted higher education minis- as India’s most socio-economically ment root and branch reforms in
ter M.C. Sudhakar to announce grand developed and prosperous states. In K-12 education
plans to fill the vacant posts, this is 2024 Chandrababu Naidu who ast October Lokesh launched
likely to prove an empty promise. In during his three terms as chief minis- Lan ambitious LEAP (Learn-
Budget 2025-26, Rs.53,674 crore was ter of consolidated AP was the prime ing Excellence in Andhra Pradesh)
allocated to the government’s five driver in developing Hyderabad programme to revolutionize K-12
major freebie guarantee schemes cf. (pop. 10 million), a city renowned education statewide through technol-
Rs.45,286 crore to education. That’s for its pearls industry and little else, ogy, innovation, and inclusion.
a clear indication of government pri- into a glitzy IT (information technol- Under the LEAP framework, the
orities. ogy) hub in which almost all US- state government intends to overhaul
Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru) based majors including Microsoft, and re-build AP’s school education
Google and Dell among others have system on five pillars — curriculum
TELANGANA established large service centers and reform, teacher training, infrastruc-
Great education race back offices to rival Bangalore, was ture improvement, digital learn-
ing, and assessments. According
returned to power in AP after five
years in the wilderness. to Lokesh, LEAP is closely aligned
fter independent india’s Almost simultaneously the with the National Education Policy
first linguistic agitation in Indian National Congress, led by A. (NEP) 2020 and introduces AI-
A1952 and a dramatic 58- Revanth Reddy was unexpectedly driven evaluation tools, play-based
day fast-unto-death of politician returned to power in Telangana. learning in early years, and digital
Potti Sriramulu, Andhra State was Since then, the two fraternal states content modules designed to nurture
carved out of the erstwhile Madras have been engaged in an intense race children’s creativity, communication,
Presidency. Three years later it was to transform their states into India’s and problem-solving skills.
named Andhra Pradesh under the most developed, with special focus A few months earlier in July,
States Reorganization Act, 1956. on education. Lokesh synchronised a mega Parent-
Almost half a century later, fol- With the advantage of having Teacher Meeting (PTM) 2.0 in which
lowing another prolonged agitation, Hyderabad which is a thriving ICT 22 million parents, students, teach-
in 2014 Andhra Pradesh was bifur- hub rivalling Bengaluru, and several ers and public representatives par-
cated into the two states of Andhra top-ranked universities including the ticipated to discuss and debate ways
Pradesh (pop. 49.6 million) and blue-chip Indian School of Busi- and means to strengthen parent-
Telangana (35.2 million), with Hy- ness flourishing in the city, Revanth school partnerships; promote trans-
derabad the prosperous shared capi- Reddy is in pole position in the two parency and accountability; facilitate
tal of consolidated Andhra Pradesh, states’ education development race. holistic student development; raise
accruing to Telangana in 2024. However, Naidu — whose Telugu child well-being awareness and pro-

26 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2026