Students will be taught ‘Future Skills’ from Class VIII, says CM

State government introducing "Future Skills" from Class VIII to prepare students for competition. Tabs with pre-loaded content, IFPs, English Labs & Smart TVs for digital transformation.

The State government is initiating steps to introduce ‘Future Skills’, an innovative skill-based educational component, from Class VIII from the coming academic year in all the schools, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has said.

The component has been designed to prepare students to face competition and would have topics like Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Blockchain Technology, Metaverse, Data Analytics, Robotics, Cyber Security, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Financial Literacy. Steps are on to appoint tutors and discussions are under way to see how these topics can be taught to students in an easier way, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said.

He distributed tabs to Class VIII students at Government Tribal Welfare Ashram High School (GTWAHS) in Chintapalli in Alluri Sitharama Raju district here on Wednesday.

Addressing a large gathering of students from various schools, he said in the next 10 days 4.34 lakh students from around 9,000 government schools in the State will be provided with these tabs at an expenditure of ₹620 crore.

This is the second consecutive year, the government has distributed tabs to Class VIII students, he recalled, adding that the government had distributed tabs to 5.81 lakh students and teachers spending ₹686 crore last year.

Each tab costs around ₹17,500 in the market, while the Byju’s pre-loaded content alone costs nearly ₹15,000. In total, every student is being benefited by ₹33,000. The pre-loaded Byju’s content can be viewed even in offline mode, the Chief Minister said.