The Local Best Model Of Education - A.p.j. Abdul Kalam

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[b] In Andhra Pradesh, over a million students pass the class X state wide exam yearly. Of these, the top 1% or about 10,000 students are probably brilliant but their educational levels of achievement are diverse and disparate based on their schooling and quality of education. Since admission into RGUKT (Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technology) is based on a "Local Best Model" and uses the rule of reservation as put forward by the government of India, this top 1% has a wide diversity of marks. About 70% of the students come from rural backgrounds and will have the opportunity to study in a world class institution of technology.

Education at RGUKT is based on the intensive use of Information Technology and is completely Free. Every student has access to a laptop and education uses the latest advances in Learning Sciences such as Learning by Example, Learning by Doing and Problem-based Learning. Instead of te[/b]

aching raw subjects, the focus is facilitating learning through integrated real life problem in design and delivery.

Online lectures are provided and lectures are followed by problem solving sessions that reinforce what has been covered in each lecture and it enables the student to set his or her own pace in learning.

This model has emanated from the vision of Prof. Raj Reddy from Carnegie Mellon University. Andhra Pradesh Government has seen the merits of this type of education which can bring in democratic access of quality education to our rural youth and instituted three centers, one each in Andhra, Rayalseema and Telangana regions of the state. AP IIIT are situated in Basar, Nuzvid and RK Valley. I have visited AP IIIT Nuzvid. It was a beautiful experience for me to see how 5000 rural students had got transformed into quality learners in one campus. Of course, the govt has to meet all the expenditure. AP IIIT model is good, particularly in providing equal opportunity to rural students. How do we make similar system work in a cost effective way for the whole country?

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Gp

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