CPM Accuses YSRC Govt of Rs 1,250-Cr Education Scam

 Vijayawada: CPM state general secretary V. Srinivasa Rao alleged the YSRC government bought e-tabs and education content for government schools at inflated costs, resulting in corruption of Rs 1,250 crore.

He explained that the state government purchased 9,52,925 tabs in two years, last year 5,18,745 tabs and this year 4,34,185 tablets.

He claimed that last year Samsung A7 model Tabs were sold on Amazon website for Rs 11,999, but the state government bought it for Rs 13,262. He said the wholesale price of a single tab of this model would be Rs 9,000, which shows each tab was bought for an additional cost of Rs 4,000.

He said this year Acer-1 model tabs were bought at Rs 17,500 per piece, but in the market it is not more than Rs 14,000 per piece and the wholesale rate would not be Rs 12,000 per piece.

He alleged there was a scam of over Rs 250 crore in the purchase of tabs and demanded an inquiry to find out who made money out of this.

Srinivasa Rao said there was a bigger scandal in the purchase of education content than the purchase of tabs.

 He said ed-tech company Byjus was charging Rs 15,500 licence fee for content per tab, which should have been procured for Rs 5,000 and explained that the content given to the class VIII students cannot be used next year as it has to be purchased again.

Pointing out that Byjus was hit by a series of frauds and was in massive debt to the point of near-bankruptcy, Srinivasa Rao said if Byjus shuts down, students will be left in the lurch as their study material will be changed.

He expressed concern that e-tabs and Byjus content was eating up teaching posts and that the government was planning to reduce 40,000 teaching jobs.

Srinivasa Rao demanded the YSRC government set up digital laboratories in government schools as parents are unhappy that their children are playing online video games at home, using the school tabs.

The Left leader advised that screens in schools were enough for the students' digital education and in that case tabs could be done without.