Inaugurating a district-level educational convention and workshop on ‘Pro-active administration for qualitative education’ at Zilla Panchayat hall on Saturday, Heggade said that India has come to be recognised as one of the intellectual estates erasing the initial opinion of the West that India is a poor land of ‘snake charmers’.
“This change has happened due to creation of opportunity and government should emphasis on creation of opportunity in future,” he said adding that as against a time when people used to throng to Sri Kshethra to seek monetary help to purchase books, uniforms etc for their children, today the scenario has changed drastically.
“I hardly find people coming to Kshethra seeking monetary help for education because today Government takes care of uniform, books, mid-day meals and even provides cycles to students,” he said.
Dr Heggade opined that when compared to the northern states of India, the educational scenario and opportunities are better in southern states.
Narrating his experience at a place called Silli, which is just 40 kms from Ranchi, where Rural Development and Self Employment Training Institute (RUDSETI) was inaugurated, Dr Heggade said that on the first day itself, the centre got 1,000 applications, an incident that will never happen in any of the southern states.
Sri Kshethra Dharmasthala has been supporting government schools in a big way. They have donated infrastructure to schools in the district at a cost of Rs six crores. Dr Heggade said that the Kshethra will continue to support government schools in future because the children hailing from humble and poor background come to these schools.
Next month infrastructure will be developed in certain schools of Chitradurga district at a cost of Rs 50 lakh.
Department for Primary and Higher Education State Secretary Kumar Nayak said that State government is giving lot of emphasis on education. “Today Rs 10,100 crore is the amount allotted in the budget for education, which is four per cent of the state GDP. A sum of Rs 850 crore is provided for mid-day meal programme, which is benefiting over 70 lakh students,” he said.
Zilla Panchayat President K T Shailaja Bhat presided. Deputy Commissioner Dr N S Channappa Gowda, CEO Dr Vijayprakash among others were present.
