Academic performance of students needs evaluation in Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam: With the active participation of Telugu NRIs, the digital classroom initiative is turning out to be a game changer in the education field in government-run schools. However, the academic performance of the students needs a third party evaluation to help to gauge its true impact.

Power fluctuations and poor Internet connectivity are some of the major hiccups for the digital classroom initiative at some places. However, the NRIs that are funding the project are satisfied with the outcome so far. Some are of the opinion that orientation programmes for the teachers on how to use the digital tools would make the teaching process more effective.

With a 30:70 fund sharing by the NRIs and the AP government, the electronic de-vices being provided to ea-ch government school are, two computers (Rs 60,000), one projector (Rs 40,000), two UPS or inverters (Rs 40,000), screen kit and installation (Rs 2,000), network provision (Rs 3,000) and one printer (Rs 5,000). The total expenditure amounts to Rs 1,50,000.

According to details available on the AP CM’s Dashboard, 1,932 schools have been provided with digital classrooms so far. “We have set a target to extend the facility to 5,000 schools by the 2017-18 fiscal. With the help of the NRIs, Prakasam district will become the first district in the state to have at least one digital classroom in all the high schools,” said Pradeep Karuturi, a co-ordinating member of the AP Janm-bhoomi and the digital classroom initiative. 

Pyala Prasada, a Telugu NRI who has funded 35 schools in V. Madugula mandal of Vizag said, “The project aims at bridging the gap between the government and the corporate schools and nobody should be deprived of a quality education. It has given me the utmost satisfaction. There could be some teething problems initially with respect to power and Internet connectivity. But I hope the AP Fibre Grid project will resolve the Internet issues soon.”

When asked about the impact of the digital tool on the student, he said, "We have received a good feedback from students so far. But an evaluation from the government would help gauge the outcome properly. The academic performance of the students will directly reflect its impact.”