With the aim to ensure access to quality education, NITI Aayog has partnered with BYJU’S, the world’s most valuable EdTech company, to provide children from 112 Aspirational districts of the country free access to BYJU’S high-quality and tech-driven learning programmes.
According to the official press release, the collaboration will feature two main components:
- BYJU'S Career-Plus programme, under Aakash+BYJU'S, will identify and provide high-quality test prep coaching to 3000 meritorious students of classes 11 and 12 who aspire to appear for NEET and JEE.
- A voluntary programme for children of school-going age classes 6-12, who can opt-in to receive scholastic content from BYJU'S Learning App for 3 years, under its social impact initiative, Education for All.
The project envisages the establishment of a dedicated working group that will create a knowledge, innovation, and strategy support system. The team will also actively monitor and evaluate programme implementation to enable efficacy and ensure a better scope of delivery.
Commenting on the development, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said,
"Technology has played a key role in helping ensure continuity and a lot of classrooms have moved to an "online" format. In many ways, this has catalysed the development of innovations in the Education space, and it is imperative for us to reimagine education and keep pace with these innovations. Effective use of technology in education can aid transformation and with BYJU'S joining us, the students in these aspirational districts will get an opportunity to access quality education."
NITI Aayog has also posted about the development on its official Twitter page by tweeting:
Learning made easy & accessible!?#NITIAayog & @BYJUS have joined hands to support the #AspirationalDistricts Programme. Under this initiative, @BYJUS will provide learning content & resources on a pro bono basis to students from grades 6-12. pic.twitter.com/Dto4DkJKqz
— NITI Aayog (@NITIAayog) September 17, 2021
Highlighting how the partnership has further strengthened its efforts to empower and impact more children, Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO, BYJU’S, said,
"Through our Education for All programme, we have been empowering and impacting millions of children across the country, and by partnering with NITI Aayog, our efforts are being strengthened further. Education holds the key to driving society forward, and we believe that every child, irrespective of their socio-economic background, deserve to have access to quality education. We are confident that with this partnership, children from underserved communities and locations will be empowered with tech-enabled learning and bring in positive systemic changes in the education ecosystem."
For the Career-Plus programme, students will be selected through a pre-designed test and provided teaching and content material, along with mentoring support and guidance. This initiative will combine the best of classroom and online learning, thus providing a hybrid model of education. Apart from dedicated centres for implementing support, students will also have access to digital infrastructure in the form of devices (tablets/smartphones).
