Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on September 11 said the state is preparing a new education policy aimed not only at Gen Z but also at Gen Alpha and Gen Beta, linking education reform directly to the government’s ‘Telangana Rising 2047’ ambition of building a $1 trillion economy by 2034 and a $3 trillion economy by 2047.
Speaking during a more than two-hour discussion on education in the Legislative Assembly, Reddy, who also holds the education portfolio, said the government plans to increase education’s share of the state budget to 15%. He argued that the education system must prepare successive generations for a changing world of work, including one increasingly shaped by technology and artificial intelligence.
The proposed policy follows the work of the Telangana Education Commission, constituted in 2024 under retired IAS officer Akunuri Murali, which submitted its comprehensive Education Policy for Telangana 2026: Vision for Inclusive Excellence to the government in January and formally presented it to Reddy in February.
The commission’s work covers education from pre-primary to university and technical education, based on consultations with students, parents, teachers, educationists and civil society groups. Reddy’s government says its approach will focus on better government schools, stronger teacher training, early childhood education, skills and industry exposure, while the Education Commission has recommended wider structural reforms.
Education As Economic Investment
Reddy’s central argument is that Telangana’s economic ambitions cannot be separated from the quality of its education system. Referring to Gen Z as those born between 1997 and 2012, Gen Alpha as those born between 2013 and 2024, and Gen Beta as children born from 2025 onwards, he said a policy framed today must remain relevant to generations that will enter the workforce at different points over the next two decades.
“The future of this country lies in the classrooms,” Reddy said while emphasising education’s ability to transform lives. He also pointed to the presence of Gen Z legislators such as Yashaswini Reddy and Mynampally Rohit in the Telangana Assembly as an example of generational change already underway. The government’s financial commitment is also being positioned as part of this transformation.
Reddy said education received 8.22% of the state budget earlier this year and that the government intends to raise the allocation gradually to 15%. In May, he described expenditure on students as an “investment for future generations” and said the government wanted Telangana to emerge as a national leader in education.
The proposed policy is not limited to classroom teaching. The Education Commission, chaired by Akunuri Murali, was tasked with developing a long-term framework covering pre-primary education, schools, higher education and technical education.
Its report says the panel conducted field visits to government and private institutions, public hearings, brainstorming sessions and consultations with educationists, civil society organisations and teachers’ unions, while also examining education data and policy reports.
Its recommendations include transforming government schools through better teaching methods, infrastructure, digital learning, teacher training and student engagement; improving the quality and safety of school meals; considering regulation of private-school fees; strengthening teacher education; examining the entry age for Class 1; improving English-language teaching; and strengthening higher education.
The commission’s chairman Akunuri Murali has defended the process as one involving multiple experts and educationists, after criticism from the Opposition, and argued that education policy should not be politicised.
From Nursery To Future Jobs
A major part of Telangana’s education reset is the attempt to create a continuous education pipeline from the earliest years. The state government has said it plans to implement a Nursery-to-Class 12 model, initially in Hyderabad’s core urban area, partly to address the dropout problem between Class 10 and Intermediate.
Reddy has also spoken about improving government schools so that children from poorer and migrant families do not have to depend on private institutions for quality education. The government says it wants to combine better infrastructure with stronger teaching and learning outcomes.
At the same time, its skills strategy is increasingly focused on employment beyond traditional degrees. Reddy has spoken about foreign-language training in German and Japanese alongside English, while Industrial Training Institutes are being converted into Advanced Technology Centres.
The Young India Skills University is another part of this approach, with the government seeking stronger links between education, industry and employment. The Chief Minister has also said polytechnic education will be brought under the university and that students will receive greater industry exposure, including internships.
The Education Commission’s recommendations are similarly wide-ranging. Among its proposals are bringing pre-school education into regular schools, improving teacher preparation, extending the mid-day meal programme to higher classes, strengthening regulation and quality monitoring, and restructuring aspects of secondary and higher education.
The commission has also proposed a much larger education allocation: its policy document reportedly recommended that at least 18% of the state budget be devoted to education, higher than the 15% target now publicly cited by Reddy.
Other recommendations reported from the policy include restructuring teacher education, merging the secondary and Intermediate boards, and converting existing schools into integrated Telangana Public Schools offering education from Nursery to Class XII.
These proposals show that the government’s stated ambition goes beyond adding new subjects to the curriculum; it is attempting to rethink how students enter, move through and eventually exit the education system into employment or higher study.
The timing is significant. A child entering nursery today could potentially be entering higher education or the workforce around the period when Telangana hopes to be approaching its 2047 economic target. The state’s Telangana Rising 2047 vision explicitly sets a goal of $1 trillion in State GDP by 2034 and $3 trillion by 2047, while also promising free education from KG to postgraduate level for underprivileged sections.
The government therefore sees education not simply as a welfare measure but as part of the infrastructure needed to create a skilled workforce for technology, manufacturing, services, healthcare, agriculture and other emerging sectors.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
Telangana’s decision to connect education with a 2047 economic vision is welcome because long-term development cannot be built only through investment, infrastructure and headline economic targets. It ultimately depends on whether children receive the knowledge, confidence, skills and opportunities needed to participate meaningfully in that growth.
The emphasis on Gen Z, Gen Alpha and Gen Beta is particularly relevant because each generation will face a different world of work, and education systems that remain frozen in the past risk deepening inequality. At the same time, ambitious targets must be matched by measurable outcomes. A larger education budget will matter only if it translates into better foundational learning, well-supported teachers, accessible schools, digital inclusion and genuine opportunities for children from poorer and marginalised communities.
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