The School Education Department of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding with Ed-tech company Byju's to provide quality content to government school students from classes 4 to 10.
School Education Commissioner S Suresh Kumar and Byju's vice-president Sushmit Sarkar singed the MoU in the presence of Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, Education Minister Botsa Satyanarayana and Special Chief Secretary B Rajsekhar. Byju's CEO Raveendran participated through a video link.
The state government also decided to distribute tabs, at a cost of Rs 500 crore, to 4.7 lakh students of class 8 to aid in digital learning. Byju's content would be incorporated in all textbooks for these classes from next year in both Telugu and English.
Calling it "an important day in my life", the Chief Minister said on the occasion that the two initiatives would transform the lives of poor students. "Visual presentation and content enhancement would come through from 4th to 10th class in government schools. This will be a game-changer," the Chief Minister said.
Required orientation would be given to teachers as well to guide the students in a better way, he added. The digital content that would otherwise cost Rs 20,000 to Rs 24,000 per student, would be delivered to government school students in the state free-of-cost, Jagan Mohan Reddy said.
The Chief Minister, who also reviewed the School Education activities, said television sets would be installed in each class in all government schools for visual learning.
(With PTI inputs)
