Agartala, March 7 (TIWN / IANS) The Tripura government has decided to set up at least one English medium school in every block by next year, Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty said on Tuesday.

"To educate the children properly and to prepare them at par with the national standard, state government would ensure at least one English medium school in all the 58 blocks in the state by next year," he said while addressing a meeting of school students.

He said that the state government already started works to set up an English medium science college here.

"To provide quality education both in urban and rural areas, adequate numbers of qualified teachers are being posted and infrastructure of the schools are also being developed both in urban, rural and remote areas," the Minister added.

Chakraborty lambasted the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for saffronisation of the education system in the country and stressed the need to give future generation lesson about tolerance.

He also urged the students and teachers community to prevent any attempt to create anarchy in the educational institutions.

The Minister said that in the proposed budget of the 2017-18 fiscal, top priority has been given to education by allocating 21.23 per cent of the budgetary expenditure.

Currently, Tripura has 335 English medium schools comprising government run and private management.

Northeastern state of Tripura's literacy rate now stood at 96.82 per cent -- a feat that attracted visits of many officials and ministers from other states to study the efforts that brought the success.

Tripura government launched a three-phased state-wide literacy campaign after the last census in 2011, when the literacy rate was at 87.75 per cent.