Andhra Pradesh Minister for Education, IT, Electronics, and Communications, Nara Lokesh, chaired a high-level review meeting with top education department officials to orchestrate comprehensive updates across the state’s academic framework. During the session held at his Undavalli residence, Minister Lokesh directed authorities to finalize all necessary operational guidelines to officially launch the prestigious ‘Thalliki Vandanam’ scheme in the third week of July. The welfare initiative, which provides financial assistance to mothers of school-going children in both government and private institutions, is on track as officials confirmed that the biometric Aadhaar verification process for beneficiaries is nearly complete.
With an immediate focus on upscaling school education, the Minister mandated specific strategies to significantly boost student enrollment in government institutions. The meeting finalized the schedule to host the ‘Shining Stars’ talent search program on June 29 to identify outstanding potential among young learners, followed by a ‘Mega PTM’ (Parent-Teacher Meeting) in the third week of July to foster deeper parental participation. Turning his attention toward higher education, Minister Lokesh issued strict instructions to ensure zero delays in the administrative execution of 12 distinct common entrance tests (CETs), including EAPCET, POLYCET, and RCET. He advised officials to design the local admission timelines keeping neighboring states’ CET schedules and national exams in mind to prevent academic conflicts for local students.
The officials updated the Minister that the EAPCET notification is ready to kick off the counseling process for filling 1.88 lakh engineering seats across 254 public and private engineering institutions in Andhra Pradesh. Looking toward global infrastructure, Lokesh explored ongoing dialogues with renowned domestic and international Ivy-league entities—including Thapar Institute, James Cook University, and Melbourne University—to establish world-class campuses in the state, while explicitly demanding the acceleration of the proposed GMR Mansas Aviation University setup. Concurrently, the Minister expressed his sincere gratitude to the Central Government for officially sanctioning a dedicated ‘NCC State Directorate’ for Andhra Pradesh, emphasizing that this dynamic development will unlock highly enhanced military and discipline training avenues for the state’s youth.
