VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh Subjects Forum Online Services, formed as part of AP e-Knowledge Exchange programme, is gaining popularity among teachers and students across the State.
In pursuit of quality in secondary education, the State school education department has come up with the AP e-Knowledge Exchange under which teachers, students and experts will be connected on a technology-based social platform to share various topics. The students are expressing their content with the initiative, though technical issues in the portal are bothering them.
A team from Malaysian-based Scope and Impact Hub had developed the Forum and handed it over to the school education department in September. While launching it the same month, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had instructed the officials to use the digital base as a platform to connect students and teachers. The students can post their queries and doubts in various subjects on the website, and get them solved by respective teachers and experts. One can participate in discussion forums, activity threads and also access various external links. The subject is provided and partitioned, based on the classes and subjects. However, the portal is still in beta version and does not possess a statutory domain. In order to access the website, one must go through the website of Commissioner of School Education and open the link of AP e-Knowledge Exchange. Though students and teachers registered in large numbers, a majority of them are facing issues due to poor maintenance of the website.
“The students are showing interest in this digital education programme, as they can easily connect to their fellow classmates and students of other schools, teachers and experts. But, accessing the website is truly a test for their patience, for it keeps buffering for longer periods,” said K Ratna Kumari, a teacher at Children’s Montessori School in Vijayawada.
After being designed and structured by the Malaysian team, the AP’s IT Cell has been given the responsibility of the website maintenance and development, but in vain. Over two lakh students and 25,000 teachers across the State have registered themselves on the portal.