Right to Education is old slogan, Right to Quality Education is aimed at: CM Jagan

VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh government has signed an MoU with the edX, a leading global e-learning platform that conducts Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

This would enable 12 lakh students in AP to pick and pursue their chosen subjects from more than 2,000 modern and emerging courses, free of cost.

The MoU was signed by the higher education department officials and edX founder Anant Agarwal in the presence of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy at the CM’s Camp Office in Tadepalli on Friday.

The programme was witnessed in online mode by vice-chancellors and students of 26 universities.

The Chief Minister reaffirmed his commitment to quality education, “which only can make our students globally competitive and fetch them high-end salaried jobs in top-notch companies.”

Jagan Mohan Reddy said, “Right to Education is an old slogan. Right to Quality Education is the present-day necessity.”

“The MoU incorporates a golden chapter in the history of education in AP as it helps our students get international joint certification from edX and Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Cambridge Universities and other world educational institutions,” the CM said.

Asserting that the competition of AP students is not only with those in other states but also with the students across the world, he said, adding that world-standard education would give a bright future for them.

He said the MoU with the edX is only a beginning and it may take four to five years to give the results. “Steps are being taken to transform the educational system from the elementary stage to higher education level,” he said.

The Chief Minister said that in every part of our educational reforms beginning with the introduction of English medium schools to the filling of teaching faculty vacancies, to introducing podcasts, to getting NAAC affiliation to 180 educational institutions, to the signing of MoU with edX, his government has been working with dedication.

“This government feels that investment in human resources is one of our key priority sectors,” he said.

Jagan Mohan Reddy stated, “Following the MoU, students would be able to learn locally unavailable courses like AI (Artificial Intelligence), Machine learning, Data Sciences, Real Estate management, cyber forensic, stock exchange, wealth and risk management and other modern verticals.”

“We have also signed an MoU with International Baccalaureate to introduce the IB curriculum for students of Class I in government schools from the academic year 2025-26, and teachers would undergo training from the next academic year.

Disclosing that Padmavati University has introduced full-fledged courses in AI, computer vision and meta verse learning, the Chief Minister asked the V-Cs of other universities to follow suit and introduce modern courses in augmented technology and 3D learning. They must also improve the online learning capabilities of students, he stressed.

Education minister Botsa Satyanarayana, chief secretary K.S. Jawahar Reddy, higher education council chairman Prof K. Hemachandra Reddy, higher education special chief secretary B. Rajasekhar, education principal secretary Praveen Prakash, college education commissioner P. Bhaskar, primary education commissioner K. Bhakar (Infrastructure), edX founder Prof Anant Agarwal and other representatives were present.