Amaravati, Oct 4 (IANS): In a bid to arrest the school dropout rate and encourage active student participation in learning in government schools, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will herald the Jagananna Vidya Kanuka scheme on Thursday.

With this scheme, the state government will distribute school uniforms, books, shoes, socks, belts and school bags to lakhs of students.

"As part of Jagananna Vidya Kanuka (brother Jagan's education offering) scheme, 42.3 lakh students will be distributed with the student kits," said Information and Public Relations (I & PR) Commissioner Tumma Vijaya Kumar Reddy.

Jagananna Vidya Kanuka, a Rs 650 crore scheme will offer the student kits to all government school students from classes I to X in the southern state.

"Each student kit will contain three pairs of uniform dress, one pair of shoes, two pairs of socks, a belt, one set of textbooks, notebooks and a school bag," said Reddy.

In preparation for the scheme, the chief minister himself summoned some samples of the kits to inspect their quality personally in his camp office.

The CM had already mentioned that students are the future of the state and he would like to spend money on their education.

Unlike private schools and convents in AP, it is not common to see a government school student sporting uniform shoes and a belt, which may now change with the introduction of this scheme.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the state government has already deferred reopening schools by a month, which originally were scheduled to open on Monday.