The State government’s initiatives in the School Education sector such as distribution of tablets to students free of cost, installation of interactive flat panels in classrooms, and appointment of Future Skill Experts from among the engineering college students to schools, as part of educational reforms, have been recognised and shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration, according to Principal Secretary, School Education, Praveen Prakash.
Speaking to The Hindu on February 29 (Thursday), Mr. Praveen Prakash said, like the Padma awards, the Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration was the highest civil service award, and was a matter of great pride for Andhra Pradesh to be selected for it.
He said that as part of the evaluation process by members of an expert committee, the students of Class 9, their teachers and the Future Skill Experts (students of engineering colleges who have been deputed to high schools) will receive phone calls enquiring about the use of tablets and interactive flat panels, and about the Future Skill concepts like Internet of Things, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
He directed the District Education Officers (DEOs) to send a list of mobile phone number of 100 bright students of Class 9, 100 contact numbers of School Assistant Teachers of mathematics, physics, science, biological science and social science (all put together) and 25 Future Skill Experts (total 225 mobile phone numbers) to K.V. Hema Prasad in the Principal Secretary’s office @kvhemaprasad@apschooledu.in by 12 noon of March 1.
He said the final approval would be done by an empowered committee, with the Prime Minister’s approval for the award recommendations.
The award scheme was instituted in 2006 to acknowledge, recognise and reward the extraordinary and innovative work done by districts / organisations of the Central and State governments.
The scheme was revised with a new approach in 2021 with the objective to encourage constructive competition, innovation, replication and institutionalisation of best practices. Under this approach, emphasis is on good governance, qualitative achievement and last mile connectivity, rather than only on achievement of quantitative target.
