YS Jagan distributes 4.34 lakh tabs to students in AP

VISAKHAPATNAM: Celebrating his birthday in the tribal region with students, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday formally launched the distribution of tabs to Class VIII students at Chintapalli in Alluri Sitarama Raju district.

Addressing a mammoth public meeting of school children and their parents, the Chief Minister said, “The children are our future and the Government has been spending huge amounts on educational reforms to turn the students into global products. The distribution of tabs, worth Rs 620 crore to as many as 4,34,285 students, will take place for the next ten days across the State and MLAs, school teachers and education department officials will oversee the distribution in every mandal.”

YS Jagan said that each tab cost Rs 33,000 which were loaded with the Byju’s content worth Rs 15,500. He reiterated that investment on education would be a productive investment on future human resources. The study material-loaded tabs would guide the students as tutors and change their future for good. The tabs would contain useful applications like AI (Artificial Intelligence)-aided doubt-clearance and learning foreign languages apps, he said and added that they would work like teachers and help students improve their knowledge.

Dismissing reports that the students were going astray with the tabs, the Chief Minister said that parents would be able to track the way they are used by their children. “This is the second consecutive year that the tabs are being distributed to the students of class 8, and so far, the Government has distributed as many as 9, 52, 925 tabs worth Rs 1,306 crore. Distribution of tabs is also one of the programmes taken up as part of reforms being implemented in the educational sector aiming at improving the standards of students and making them globally acceptable products with knowledge of emerging technologies,” YS Jagan said.

Informing about the digitalisation of class rooms, the Chief Minister said that as many as 62,097 class rooms from class 6 and above would be completed by the end of January and it would help students become the best in the world, he said and added that the facade of education and job market would totally change in the next two decades.

YS Jagan said that in tune with the changing world, the State Government would introduce future skills like training for students of class VIII and above from next academic year so that they would learn advanced subjects like Cyber security, virtual reality, AI, machine learning, augmented reality and data and robotic analytics along with IB (International Baccalaureate) syllabus and efforts are on to appoint tutors and train them.

With TOEFL training being given to students from class III on wards, introduction of bilingual text books and more and more students joining English medium schools, Government schools are competing with corporate schools, the Chief Minister said and added that pro-educational welfare schemes like Jagananna Vidya Deevena, Amma Vodi and Vasathi Deevena were also giving desired results.