Now, all school kids in Andhra Pradesh to study in brightly-lit classrooms

VISAKHAPATNAM: In a bid to provide power to all un-electrified schools in the state, the Andhra Pradesh

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

has directed district-level officials to prepare a comprehensive plan. Nearly 2,850 schools of 44, 510 schools in AP do not have access to power.


District officials have been asked to undertake on-field inspections of un-electrified schools and prepare an estimate for each school in their jurisdiction after consultation with the

electricity

department. Subsequently, with the inputs received from the electricity department and their field visits, officials will have to prepare a report drafting the requirement of funds.

However, officials have also been asked to explore the possibility of meeting the expenditure from funds available within the approved ‘annual work plan and budget 2019-20’.

Speaking to STOI, state project director of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, V China Veerabhaduru, said that every student has the right to have access to electricity in classrooms. “We have instructed officials to submit a report and will follow up on the issue,” he said.

A number of studies on electrification and learning outcomes in schools have revealed the correlation between the provision of electricity in schools and students’ grades.

The studies maintain that electrification will enable longer class hours and a comfortable classroom environment, improving learning outcomes. They further indicate that the introduction of technology-based education, such as digital classrooms and computer literacy will also become possible in such schools.

The department of school education and literacy of the Union government has launched an integrated scheme for school education, namely, ‘Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan’. This has subsumed three centrally-sponsored schemes— the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the

Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan

and Teacher Education.

Under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, again, states and union territories are being provided support by the government to improve infrastructure in existing government schools, including electrification.