NITI Aayog and BYJU's to Provide Digital Education in 112 Aspirational Districts

With the aim to ensure access to quality education, NITI Aayog has partnered with edtech company BYJU's to provide children from 112 aspirational districts free access to high-quality and tech-driven learning programmes.

The collaboration will feature two main components. One, BYJU's Career-Plus programme under Aakash+BYJU's will identify and provide high-quality test prep coaching to 3,000 meritorious students of classes 11 and 12 who aspire to appear for NEET and JEE.

Two, a voluntary programme for children of classes 6 to 12 years who can opt in to receive scholastic content from BYJU's learning app for three years under its social impact initiative Education for All.

The project envisages 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 better scope of delivery.

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 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," he said.

Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO of BYJU's, said education holds the key to driving society forward.

Every child irrespective of socio-economic background deserves 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," he said.

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.

The 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).