Prime Minister keen to boost literacy rate among rural children: Javadekar

Inaugurating the 175th year celebrations of St Joseph’s college here, he said that the Centre as part of its efforts was reaching out to all the rural students and had increased the student scholarships to 55 per cent, which would be directly credited into their accounts, from the first of every month from December.

The union minister said, “Modi is keen to provide education to all rural and has instructed that money should not be a barrier for education. The government after finding that 1.5 million teachers are not up to the mark, had warned them to undergo training and equip themselves otherwise their jobs would be at stake. These teachers would have to take three phase of examinations, of which one had already been conducted.”

Pointing out that the Prime Minister was particular that every deserving student should get education, Javadekar said, The union government had increased scholarship by 55 per cent. There was a delay in the disbursal of the amount, so I reviewed it last month and decided to credit the scholarship amount to each student by the first of every month from December.”

Meanwhile, he added that, “The interests in the educational loan has become a great burden to the students so, the government has decided to bear the interest. Initially, a fund of Rs 800 crore was allocated for the interest for eight lakh students beneficiaries and now, the fund had been increased to Rs 1,800 crore. The government has targeted at least 10 lakh students would get the benefit out of it in coming years.”

Earlier, the Provincial Rev Dr Danis Ponniah appealed to the minister to grant the college a university status with MHRD funds and the minister responded that St Joseph’s College was the best candidate to become a university. The minister also released the souvenir of Dodrandsbicentennial event, Book on Museum of Natural History in St Joseph’s Institutions-175 years and Book on Flowering Plants.

Soon after inaugurating the 175th year of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam’s alma mater, Prakash Javadekar was eager to see the classroom and the physics lab from where the former President got inspiration. The minister was shown the lab and the instruments used by the ‘missile man.’ He also had a feel of the seat used by Kalam by touching it. Later, professors showed Javadekar, a group photo of Kalam and his friends.