PM launches ‘Vidyanjali’ to empower government schools – My cherished dream comes true – M. R. Doreswamy

On behalf of a grateful nation, I welcome Honb’le Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s novel initiative ‘Vidyanjali’ to tag universities to government schools across the country to leverage their education services.

I humbly but proudly state that adoption of government schools for development was my first recommendation to the government of Karnataka. It was implemented as a government programme in the budget for 2020-21 in April, 2020, well before the NEP was notified in July, 2020.

Due to my personal intervention and perseverance, 35 universities/ autonomous colleges in Karnataka have adopted 10/5 government schools each and have started development of schools as per the 17 priorities identified, covering physical infrastructure, facilities for co-curricular and extracurricular activities such as mentoring, skill development, language empowerment, yoga, sports etc. Citing only 2 examples, University of Mysore has started a mobile science laboratory while REVA University has started a mobile Computer laboratory for government schools adopted by them. All the 35 HEIs have constituted a committee to monitor progress. All these institutions have been awarded ‘Certificates of Adoption’ by the State Government in an official function on 24 th Nov, 2020.

Similarly, my recommendation to establish a ‘Government-Corporate House’ to mobilize resources for special education projects, particularly empowerment of 48,000+ government schools and millions of its students across Karnataka, is under active consideration of the state government. It is therefore no exaggeration that Karnataka is a front runner in bringing HEIs and schools together on a novel academic platform, worthy of emulation by other states.

I am humbled that my efforts from 1992 culminating in my recommendations to empower government schools in Karnataka have not only been endorsed by NEP 2020 but also have become a national programme.

I earnestly appeal to our beloved Prime Minister to involve all the elected representatives across the country (MLAs, MLCs, MPs and Rajya Sabha Members) to adopt government schools under ‘Vidyanjali’ to take the initiative to the next level and make it a truly historic, social movement.

- Dr. M R Doreswamy, Chancellor, PES University