'The Janmabhoomi team' new scheme to expedite the digital classroom project

 andhrapradesh | Written by : Suryaa Desk Updated: Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 10:41 AM

Vijayawada: The NRI cell of AP Janmabhoomi, which has been facilitating the development of Zilla Parishad schools, Anganwadi centres and burial grounds by accepting donations from Telugu NRIs, has come up with a new scheme to expedite the digital classroom project. The Janmabhoomi team is planning to make 2,600 Zilla Parishad school classrooms across the State digitally equipped in the next 12 months by engaging Telugu NRIs in North America. So far, 2,400  classrooms have been revamped using the donations from the NRIs under the digital classroom initiative.


Speaking to Express on Friday, the special representative of the State government for North America Jayaram said that the NRI cell,  which has been acting as a facilitator so far, would take up the execution of the programme now onwards. “Till date, we have facilitated the donations and handed them over to the State government, which used to procure equipment. Now, we plan to raise the funds and procure equipment ourselves so that we can achieve faster results,” he said. 


He added that the State Education Department would monitor the cell’s activities for transparent transactions.While the NRIs’ donations make up 30 per cent of the project cost, the government bears the remaining 70 per cent. “Each NRI donates USD 750 (approx Rs 45,000) for the school of their choice and the State government spends Rs 1.05 lakh. The school is usually from the place the donors hail from. Now, we are mooting to introduce USD 1,000 donation plan to ready digital classrooms in lesser time and offer more facilities,” he explained.


Jayaram claimed that the digital classrooms have helped in improving the attendance by 17.3 per cent. “We organise regular interaction sessions with the donors in which they share their experiences. We also arrange interactive sessions for ZP school students with the students of different schools in North America,” he said. Apart from the digital classroom initiative, the cell also plans to develop 1,000 Anganwadi centres and 500 burial grounds across AP by the end of 2018. “As of now, about 100 Anganwadi centres have been developed in Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts,” he added.


Modern classrooms  1,500+ NRIs have been involved in development of schools, Anganwadi centres and burial grounds in the State 2,400 schools have been digitised since October 2016 6 digital classrooms are added every day Works for 500 more classrooms to begin by February


Donation plans USD 750 for digital classrooms, USD 5,000 for revamping Anganwadi centres and $8,000 for development of burial grounds