AP government sets up working group on educational reforms
VIJAYAWADA: With an aim to transform the government school students into world-class citizens equipped with modern technology, the State government has constituted a high-level working group with senior officials and representatives of global tech companies to finalise the curriculum, infrastructure, resource deployment, learning content and lab requirement in schools. The working group has been asked to submit its report by July 15.
The working group to be headed by the Principal Secretary (School Education), will consist of IT Secretary, School Education Commissioner, 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, Archana G Gulati, Ex. Advisor Digital Communications, Niti Aayog, and representatives of Google and NASSCOM. School Infrastructure Commissioner will be its convener.
It is a step forward in the educational reforms being introduced by the government aiming to turn 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 the international level after completing the courses.
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, Large Language Models (LLMs), data analytics, ChatGPT, Web 3.0, augmented reality, virtual reality, internet of things, digital currency, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing and gaming.
It will also make suggestions on developing suitable curriculum, lesson plans, methods of training, the requirement of labs and human resources to help students gain perfect knowledge in these subjects, read a GO issued on Sunday by Principal Secretary (School Education) Praveen Prakash.
After assuming power, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy brought revolutionary changes in the educational sector. The State government has been implementing Amma Vodi, Jagananna Vidya Deevena, Vidya Kanuka and Vasathi Deevena and other programmes, besides developing basic infrastructure in the schools and making changes in the curriculum too.
As a result of the reforms, 41 lakh students are studying English medium in government schools since 2019-20 and in tune with this, students are being given bilingual textbooks of Science, Mathematics and Social Studies under Jagananna Vidya Deevena. Labs have also been set up to help students improve their English language skills. The subject-teacher concept was also introduced starting in class 3.
The government also initiated steps in 2022-23 to ensure that all government schools get CBSE affiliation and reached a pact with Byju's to provide audio-visual content to students in Mathematics, Science and Social Studies. In another revolutionary step, interactive flat panels (IFPs) are being installed in 30,213 classrooms, while 10,038 classrooms will have smart TVs as part of digitalisation under Nadu-Nedu.