Andhra schools to have digital classrooms, says CM Jagan

Celebrating his 50th birthday amid cheering school children at Sri Alapati Venkataramaiah Zilla Parishad High School at Edlapalli village of Bapatla district, the chief minister launched a scheme of distributing electronic tablets among Class 8 students across the state free of cost to promote digital literacy.

Hyderabad

Addressing a gathering, Jagan said his government was distributing 5,18,740 tabs to 4,59,564 Class 8 students and 59,176 teachers across the state

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday announced the introduction of digital classrooms in all government schools in the state from the next academic year as part of the efforts to bring about a digital revolution in the education sector.

Celebrating his 50th birthday amid cheering school children at Sri Alapati Venkataramaiah Zilla Parishad High School at Edlapalli village of Bapatla district, the chief minister launched a scheme of distributing electronic tablets among Class 8 students across the state free of cost to promote digital literacy.

Addressing a gathering, Jagan said his government was distributing 5,18,740 tabs to 4,59,564 Class 8 students and 59,176 teachers across the state. “This initiative is part of our government to bring about reforms in the education sector and ensure that children receive fully aided knowledge and education,” he said.

Quoting former US President John F Kennedy, Jagan said, “All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talent.” He said the tabs of Samsung brand would contain preloaded content developed by Byju.

Each tab along with the content would cost ₹32,000 and the total expenditure incurred on the project was around ₹778 crore. Besides Telugu, English and Hindi, the curriculum will be in eight languages designed based on CBSE syllabus to prepare students to perform well at national level competitive exams.

A secure mobile device management software has been installed in the tab to secure data and also able to track the student activities, he said, adding that it would deny access to any undesirable material. Tabs will be distributed to eighth class students every year to make subjects easily comprehensible towards providing better education.

Jagan said steps were also being taken by the government to introduce teaching through Interactive Flat Panels (Digital Display Boards) by June, 2023 in 30,032 class rooms of 6th and above in 15,634 schools. Besides, smart TVs will also be set up in foundation and foundation plus schools, he said.

“Our intention is to facilitate digital mode education to enable students to easily learn in classrooms and at home as well,” he said.

Explaining the initiative taken by the state government in the education sector in the last three and a half years, the chief minister pointed out that the state now ranks 7th in the country in the sector.