As per the announcement, the total 5,18,740 tabs will cost the government Rs 664 crore and are supposed to come with preloaded Byju’s academic content for class 8, sources in the Education Department said.
Visakhapatnam, September 20, 2022: Class 8 students and teachers will have to wait three more months to receive the tablet computers (tabs) promised by the Andhra Pradesh government, an official statement said on Monday. According to the statement, although the state government announced distribution of tabs to 4,59,564 students and 59,176 teachers in government and aided schools in September, “supply issues” are said to be pushing the delivery date further to December.
As per the announcement, the total 5,18,740 tabs will cost the government Rs 664 crore and are supposed to come with preloaded Byju’s academic content for class 8, sources in the Education Department said. Furthermore, the AP Technology Services finalised the deal with a private supplier for the Samsung T220 Lite Tablet PC, with the delivery schedule supposed to start this month.
In the first phase, the department planned to distribute the tabs in 15 districts spread over north coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema by September 30. The remaining 11 districts in coastal Andhra were supposed to be covered in the second phase by October 31.
However, according to education minister Botsa Satyanarayana, the Legislative Council on Friday stated that the tab distribution would be done on Children’s Day, which is on November 14, across the state. “But we may not meet even that timeline now because of the paucity of gadgets. Eventually it may happen only in December,” a senior official of the Education Department said.
Initially, 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. According to the reports published in financialexpress.com
The tabs will come loaded with a feature that enables tracking of usage by students and teachers.
Initially, the government proposed to give the gadgets only to students of class 8 but the state Cabinet gave its approval on September 7 extending the facility to the teachers in government and aided schools as well.
Sources in the Education Department said the government entered into an agreement with the vendor on September 5 under which each Tab with a 64 GB memory card will be supplied at Rs 12,843, as against the market price of Rs 16,446.
The government then came up with the tabs idea, to be distributed to Class-8 students every year from now on, which they will have to carry to classes 9 and 10.
