Vijayawada: In a novel push for the education sector, the Andhra Pradesh government has signed an MoU with the Switzerland-based International Baccalaureate on introducing their curriculum in government schools in AP.
School education principal secretary Praveen Prakash and chief education officer and director of education innovation of IB, Anton Beguin, exchanged the MoU copies on Wednesday in the presence of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. The signing was done at the Camp Office here.
The Chief Minister said this would pave the way for integrating IB syllabus and practices with the syllabus of students of Classes I to XII. He said, “In countries like India, quality education is necessary to make students compete at the global level. The tie-up with IB offers a good future to our students and it would help them get highly-paid jobs in the ever-competitive job market.”
“It is necessary to upgrade our present educational system and syllabus to enhance the problem-solving abilities of students. The IB curricula’s integration with the school syllabus would help achieve this objective.”
The chief minister explained that as per the MoU, IB experts would impart training to teachers in government schools as also to education department officials at mandal and district levels apart from training to officers and staff of the SSC and Intermediate boards and AP SCERT in handling the IB syllabus. “This will make them a part of the IB’s global teaching network.”
The IB syllabus will be first introduced to students of Class I from the academic year 2025-26. As they are promoted to upper classes every year, they would be learning the upgraded lessons, making IB part of all classes in government schools by 2035. As per this arrangement, in a steady upgradation across classes, IB syllabus would be taught to students of Class XII by 2037.
“A new journey has begun and it helps set new standards in the educational system,” the CM said.
IB director general Olli Pekka Heinonen, who participated in the programme in video mode from Geneva, said this was their biggest MoU so far and it would be an inspiration for other countries and regions.
“This MoU helps improve our country’s relations with India in the educational sector. IB would first concentrate on Play Best Learning among the students while helping them learn foreign languages also along with other important subjects like mathematics, science and arts,” he noted.
Education minister Botsa Satyanarayana, chief secretary KS Jawahar Reddy, school education principal secretary Praveen Prakash, school education commissioners Suresh Kumar and K Bhaskar (Infrastructure), Intermediate Education commissioner Sourav Gour, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan project director Srinivasa Rao, Midday Meals director SS Shobhika, senior officials and representatives of IB were among those present.
