At a time when controversial unicorn ed-tech firm Byjus has landed in yet another controversy as the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) summoned its founder, the company’s collaboration with the Andhra Pradesh government has drawn flak.
Amidst much fanfare coinciding with his birthday on Wednesday, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in Bapatla launched an ambitious programme to distribute tablet PCs to around 4.59 lakh students going to government schools across the state.
In the programme, he announced that Byjus was offering the content free of cost. Government sources pegged the price of the content Byjus was offering for free to Andhra Pradesh as ₹778 crore.
It was in June this year that the state government and Byjus signed an agreement on imparting quality education to children of government schools.
“Why did Jagan choose Byjus, which is harassing both the students and their parents? Is it not a fact that complaints have been lodged with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights against Byjus?” asked TDP spokesperson Kommareddy Pattabhiram.
He also asked why Jagan invited Byjus, a company that was struggling after raising a loan of $1.2 billion, amid mounting pressure on its management to pay up.
The NCPCR issued a summons to Byjus CEO Raveendran to appear before it in person on Friday over allegations of malpractice of hard-selling and misselling of courses.
The Byjus Premium App, which is preinstalled on the tabs has free e-content for Classes 8 and 9.
“The content is indexed chapter-wise with the textbooks followed in our schools. Each chapter is divided into concepts and each concept is then divided into a number of videos, each with a length of approximately two to four minutes,” a senior government official said while explaining the content being provided.
“There are a total of 57 chapters and 472 concepts with 300 videos. Along with the detailed videos on each concept, there are 168 solved Question Banks of all the subjects,” added the official.
CPI(M) state secretary V Srinivas Rao demanded that the government cancel the agreement signed with Byjus.
While questioning the rationale behind the government signing an agreement with a bankrupt company, Srinivas also questioned the basis on which the government concluded Byjus provides quality content or education.
He also asked the government to come out with details on who was consulted before it zeroed in on Byjus.
For the faster adaptation of the tabs by the children this year for half-yearly exams, the question paper will contain questions from the solved question banks provided in the Byjus Premium App.
“Students may not have an internet connection at their homes. To overcome the issue, the entire content of classes is loaded in a secure digital card to make it available 24×7 anywhere and everywhere in the year,” said the aforementioned government official.
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TDP smells scam in tab procurement
While the total cost of each tab — along with SD card, back cover, and OTG cable — is ₹13,268 and the government spent around ₹666 crore, the opposition TDP smelt a scam in the procurement process.
“The chief minister made ₹221 crore in the name of tabs that were distributed as his birthday gifts on Wednesday. The Maximum Retail Price (MRP) of each A7 lite Samsung Galaxy tablet with a screen size of 8.7 inches is ₹14,500, which is available on Amazon for Rs 11,999. Jagan purchased it at ₹13,262 each,” TDP spokesperson Komareddy Pattabhiram told reporters.
“When the tablets are purchased in bulk — lakhs of pieces — each tab will be available for ₹9,000, while Jagan paid Rs 13,262 for each tab, thus making a whopping Rs 221 crore in the name of distributing birthday gifts,” TDP Pattabhiram alleged.
However, the Andhra Pradesh government issued a fact check in an effort to debunk this claim.
Claim: The Tab given to 8th Class students is costing Rs.11,999/- on Amazon, therefore, causing a loss of Rs.221 Cr.
Fact: Department of School Education and APTS saved total Rs.187 Crores of Government of AP. 1/5 pic.twitter.com/dlphs6l5J2
— FactCheck.AP.Gov.in (@FactCheckAPGov) December 22, 2022
The 8.7-inch Samsung tab that is being distributed to the students comes with Mobile Device Management (MDM) for a period of three years.
The MDM is being deployed to secure the data on the students’ devices and for the department to track students’ activities.
The MDM is also expected to help configure policies through the server management console and push them out to all tabs towards enforcing security policies to keep devices secured.
It will also ensure that none of the students accesses unauthorised content on their devices. Besides, the MDM will also reportedly help instal all the latest software updates across all devices and save time.
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Trying to bridge digital divide: Jagan
Addressing a mammoth public gathering at Sri Alapati Venkataramaiah Zilla Parishad High School of Yadlapalli in the Bapatla district on Wednesday, the chief minister said that around ₹686 crore was being spent to distribute 5,18,740 tabs loaded with Byjus content free of cost to 4.59 lakh students, besides teachers, which can be used even in offline mode.
“The cost of each tab with content would be ₹32,000. The state government’s intention is to facilitate digital-mode education to enable easy learning in classrooms and at home. The distribution of tabs will continue for one week across the State and it will be a yearly event,” he said.
Highlighting the salient features of the tab, he said that besides Telugu, English, and Hindi, the curriculum would be available in eight languages.
It, he said, had been designed based on the CBSE syllabus to prepare students to perform well at national-level competitive exams.
The tabs will come with a three-year warranty and can be repaired or replaced if given to the concerned village or ward secretariat.
They would either get it repaired or provide an alternate device within one week, he said.
The tabs would be distributed to Class 8 students every year to make subjects easily comprehensible towards providing better education.
Steps are also being taken by the government to introduce teaching through Interactive Flat Panels (Digital Display Boards) by June 2023 in 30,032 classrooms of Class 6 and above in 15,634 schools where Nadu-Nedu phase-I works have been completed.
Also, smart TVs will be set up in foundation and foundation-plus schools, the chief minister said.
Recalling the struggles of parents who could not afford to educate their children, he said that education was the only way to change the minds and fate of students.
“Keeping this in mind, the government has brought in revolutionary changes in the education sector to improve the future of the children,” he said.
Expressing his concern over the “bigoted” ideology of a section of people that poor students should not get English-medium and digital education, he said that gaps in society should be removed and there should be equality in education provided to students.
“Children’s mindsets will change only with a good education system. The aim is to make future generations better and every family can develop only if there is equality in education,” he opined.
He said his government spent a total of ₹54,910 crore in the last three and a half years on reforms in the education sector.
