YS Jagan's digital revolution in education, 4.6 lakh tabs to students in AP

AMARAVATI: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy, whose aim is to bring reforms in the education sector, has embarked on a new programme on the occasion of his birthday on Wednesday with the beginning of the distribution of 5,18,740 tablets loaded with BYJU's content.

These gadgets are being given to 4,59,564 students and 59,176 teachers of 8th standard across the state. The initiative was launched at a programme organised at the ZDP school in Yadlapalli village of Chundur mandal in Bapatla district on Wednesday. The initiative was taken up on the occasion of the 50th birthday of YS Jagan on December 21.

Addressing the gathering at a public meeting as part of the event, YS Jagan said that Rs 1,466 crores had been spent for the distribution of tabs and asserted that the programme was launched as part of the reforms introduced in the school education system in 2019.

Here is a quick look at the salient reforms brought in by the chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy ever since he became the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh in 2019.

Amma Vodi

The government of Andhra Pradesh has introduced the Amma Vodi Scheme to increase the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) of students in government schools. The programme intends to extend a financial assistance of Rs 15,000 to the women who send their children to school. As many as 45 lakh women have benefited from this scheme for which the YSRCP government is spending Rs 19,617.6 crores.

Nadu-Nedu

Nadu-Nedu is one of the ambitious programmes initiated by the Chief Minister to enhance infrastructure in government schools. It is reported that Rs 3,669 crore was spent in as many as 15,715 schools in the first phase and the remaining schools are to be developed in the second phase. The work amounting to Rs. 8,000 crores was undertaken to develop 22,344 schools.

Providing Mid-day meals

The State Government is implementing the revamped mid-day meal programme under the programme named 'Jagananna Gorumuddha' scheme wherein students are provided with five eggs and three Chikpe per week. As many as 15 types of items with nutritional values higher than the Daily Allowance (RDA) were provided tie students spending Rs. 1,800 crores.

Jagananna Vidya Kanuka kits

The poor students are facing problems due to their parent's financial constraints and not being able to pursue their studies. Realizing the problem during Padayatra, YS Jagan has started Jagananna Vidya Kanuka to provide schools kit, which includes a school bag, three pairs of uniform, stitching charge, a belt, one pair of shoes, and two pairs of socks, textbooks, notebooks, workbooks and an Oxford dictionary with English to Telugu translation. About Rs, 2,323.99 crores have been spent on the scheme.

Apart from providing financial assistance to the poor, the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government has brought various Educational reforms from the academic year 2020-21 such as English medium education for which the textbooks for classes 1 to 8 are designed bilingually to bring future students fully into the English medium.

Spoken English programme

The spoken English programme was started for the students currently in Class 8 and those appearing for the Class 10 public examination in the CBSE pattern in the academic year 2024-25. Textbooks prepared with the NCERT syllabus from the 8th class are being provided with Telugu content from this academic year.

The State Government according to the National Education Policy is strictly implementing the reforms to provide qualified subject teachers for all classes from Class 3. Government schools are classified into six categories in a 5 3 3 4 pattern with Satellite Foundation School (PP1 & PP2), Foundation School (PP1, PP2, Class 1 & 2), Foundation School Plus (PP1, PP2, Classes 1 to 5), Pre-High School (Classes 3 to 7/8), High School (Classes 3 to 10) and High School Plus (Classes 3 to 12) respectively.

To increase the quality of the implementation of the Common Grading System, the states and Union Territories are implementing the Performance Grading Index (PGI) under the School Education Department to bring about a transformative change in the education sector.

Meanwhile, with the revolutionary decisions taken by the state government in the field of education, the state has ranked seventh in the country scoring 902 in 2020-21.