The Andhra Pradesh government has announced plans to distribute tablet computers (tabs) to students and teachers of class 8 at a cost of Rs 643 crore, an official statement said. Furthermore, over 4.50 lakh students and 50,194 teachers in 8,395 schools will get the Samsung T220 Lite Tablet PC. The tabs will contain contents from Byju’s in the next two months, it added.
As per the statement, the state Cabinet, which met on September 7, 2022 under the chairmanship of Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, approved the proposal for distribution of tabs.
Initially, it was proposed to give the gadgets only to students of class 8, but the Cabinet now extended the facility to the teachers in government and aided schools as well, it said.
Sources in the education department said the government entered into an agreement with the vendor on September 5 under which each tablet with a 64 GB memory card will be supplied at Rs 12,843, as against the market price of Rs 16,446.
Furthermore, there are 4,38,216 class-8 students in government-run schools and another 12,324 in aided institutions. The government initially announced that the tablet would be distributed to students in September but now the process would take at least 60 days.
“As per the agreement, the vendor will deliver 50% of the ordered quantity within 30 days and the balance in further 30 days,” the sources said.
Originally, the state government promised to distribute laptop computers to students from classes 9 to 12 (Intermediate) in lieu of the Rs 13,000 per annum ‘Amma Vodi’ dole. The plan was aborted after the suppliers quoted a base price of Rs 24,000 for each laptop.
The government then came up with the Tabs idea, to be distributed to class 8 students every year from now on. State Information Minister Ch S V Gopala Krishna said at the post-Cabinet media briefing that the Tabs scheme was independent of Amma Vodi.
With inputs from PTI.
