Students of the schools run by Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Residential Institutions’ Society (APSWRIS) are going great guns. Eight of these schools have been selected for setting up Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) introduced as part of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) by the NITI Aayog.
The ATLs are aimed at inculcating a culture of scientific innovation into the young minds. Under the programme, Niti Aayog has targeted to set up a total of 500 such labs across the country in select schools. These laboratories will provide a work space to the young students for shaping their out-of-the-box ideas. In the long run, ATL mission envisages grooming of as many as ten lakh schoolchildren into ‘neoteric innovators’.
First instalment
“The students participating in the ATLs will be encouraged, guided, mentored and enthused to work with ‘Do-It-Yourselves’ (DIY) kits so that they develop a spirit of innovation and thereby build solutions,” said V. Ramulu, secretary, APSWRIS. In the first phase, a social welfare residential school at Tallapalem in Visakhapatnam was selected and in the second phase, a school at Devarapalli, also in Visakhapatnam and one at Mandasa in Srikakulam district were chosen for the project.
On Monday, the society was informed that five more of its schools were selected in the third phase. They are Challapalli School in Krishna district, Pedapavani in Prakasam district, Komarada and Viyyampeta in Vizainagaram district and Singarayakonda in Prakasam district.
“A sum of ₹50 lakh will be sanctioned for each project in a span of five years. We have already received the first instalment of funding,” said Mr. Ramulu.
In yet another progression, 42 of the 180 schools across the State have been given laptops and faculty members are teaching basics programming languages like Scratch and App Inventor to students. Scratch is designed to be fun, educational, and easy to learn. It has the tools for creating interactive stories, games, art, simulations, and more, using block-based programming. Scratch even has its own paint editor and sound editor built-in. “It’s a two-week-long training programme which will be followed by training in Microsoft Word and other programmes. The idea is to make students adept at computers, select the best of the lot and encourage them to participate in national-level Google de-coding contest,” said Mr. Ramulu informing that the programme is being supported by AP State Skill Development Corporation.