Andhra govt sets up working group for elevating learning levels of schoolkids

Amaravati, June 11:  Aiming at transforming the government school students into world class products equipped with modern technology, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has constituted a high-level working group for the purpose.

The group is set up with senior officials and representatives of global tech companies to finalise curriculum, infrastructure, resource deployment, learning content and labs requirement at schools, as per an statement from the CMO.

The working group, to be headed by the Principal Secretary, School Education, and comprising the IT Secretary, and School Education Commissioner, has been asked to submit its report by July 15.

Its members will also include Samagra Shiksha project director, SCERT Director, Ashutosh Chadha from Microsoft India, Shalini Kapoor from Amazon Web Services India, Shweta Khurana from Intel Asia Pacific, Jaijit Bhattacharya, President, Centre for Digital Economy Policy Research, Dr Archana G. Gulati, former advisor Digital Communications, Niti Aayog and representatives of Google and NASSCOM.

The School Infrastructure Commissioner will be the convenor.

"It is a step forward in the reforms being introduced by the government aiming at turning the students into global citizens by making them competitive with proper training in emerging and future technologies. The government wants them to acquire knowledge of high-end technologies during their education and gain top-notch posts at international level after completing the courses," the CMO statement said.

The working group will make recommendations on the steps to be taken to train the students and help them gain expertise in emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Lord Language Models (LLMs), data analytics, ChatGPT, Web 3.0, augmented reality, virtual reality, internet of things, centre back digital currency, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing and gaming.

It will also make suggestions on developing suitable curriculum, lesson plans, methods of training, requirement of labs and human resources to help students gain perfect knowledge in these subjects.

After assuming power, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has brought many changes in educational sector, implementing Amma Vodi, Jagananna Vidya Deevena, Vidya Kanuka and Vasathi Kanuka programmes besides providing basic infrastructure to the schools and making changes in the curriculum too, the statement said.

Under the changes, 41 lakh students are pursuing English medium since 2019-20 and in tune with this, students were given bilingual text books of science, mathematics and social studies under Jagananna Vidya Deevena in 2020-21.

Labs were also established to help students improve English language skills.

The overnment also initiated steps in 2022-23 to ensure that all government schools get CBSE affiliation and entered into an agreement with BYJU'S for providing audio-visual content to the students in mathematics, social and science subjects to make the learning easier.