Amaravati, Sep 4 (IANS): Countering the claim by Andhra Pradesh Education Minister, Nara Lokesh, that the literacy rate in the State increased from 72.6 per cent in 2024 to 82.1 per cent in 2026, former Chief Minister and YSR Congress Party President, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy expressed "shock" over what he called "misinformation propaganda" by the coalition government headed by Chandrababu Naidu.

“It’s shocking to see the extent of misinformation propaganda by the present Andhra Pradesh Government,” he posted on ‘X’.

He claimed that no statistics pertaining to the literacy rate for Calendar year 2026 were released by any authority as the year is yet to complete.

“The PLFS (Periodic Labour Force Survey) Annual report for 2023-24 presents the results of the survey conducted by the NSSO, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, pertaining to the period June 2023 to June 2024 and this places the literacy rate of Andhra Pradesh at 72.6% for age group 7 years and above. The corresponding figure for 2018-19 is 69.1%,” wrote YS Jagan.

He mentioned that the Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual report for Calendar year 2025 presents the results of the survey conducted by the NSSO, pertaining to the period January, 2025 to December, 2025 and this places the literacy rate of Andhra Pradesh at 71.4 per cent for age groups 7 years and above. This document was published on July 2, 2026.

“When things are so amply clear, for a Government to make false claims and attempt to hoodwink the people of the State is most unfortunate,” said Y.S. Jagan.

“A worrying aspect is that, owing to the policy changes brought into effect by the present State Government, the enrolment in Government schools is reducing and enrolment in private schools is increasing as brought to light by the Statistics released by the UDISE, Ministry of Education, Government of India,” he said.

Jagan stated that instead of focussing on how to make education more accessible to children from economically weaker backgrounds, the TDP alliance Government is preoccupied in making false claims through its deception tactics. “It is advisable that the Minister of Education devotes greater time and effort towards his department and not to red book governance,” he remarked.

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This report was published from a syndicated wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.