HYDERABAD:To ensure students from the SC and ST communities are as comfortable and in the know of thing related to technology as their more privileged peers, the Telangana Social and Tribal Welfare residential Society has decided to introduce coding as the fourth subject for its students from Class 5. Dr R S Praveen Kumar, secretary, Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS) said that since coding is becoming an important skill, the Society wants its children to understand technology.
The Society is keen on making students aware of the Internet of Things (IoT) which according to the official “will help them in a big way in the future”. TSWREIS has also trained 100 students during the summer vacation camps in Drone making. “Now we want to integrate this in the curriculum. We want children to understand the dynamics of this technology and the practical and civil applications of it. We don’t want them, to be aliens when they go out in the world,” Kumar told Express.
25 more robotics labs
TSWREIS also plans to the increase the number of robotics labs from five to 25 this year, owing to the high demand for learning basic robotics. They will follow the hub and spoke model. In addition, there are also plans to start an advanced robotic lab next year. “Right now we are teaching them basic component, microcontrollers and software required. The next level would be giving them projects involving replacing manual scavengers with machines, or sweeping or securing campus without human interventions ,” he explained. Techies and people with domain expertise will be roped in for these projects.
In a bid to improve the quality of teaching in the Telangana Residential Educational Institutions, 5,318 teachers will be recruited.
Corporate junior college lecturers allege exploitation
Lecturers working in corporate junior colleges in the state have alleged exploitation by the managements by making them take seven or eight hour-long classes a day as against the permitted 50-minute duration. The Telangana Lecturers Forum said that in the last six months, its members have submitted representations to Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education officials several times, each time only to be told to approach the labour department.