Schools in AP fail to make use of Atal Tinkering Labs

Vijayawada: The NITI Aayog launched Atal Innovation Mission with an aim of creating a facilitating environment for the transformation of ideas into innovative and impactful solutions. It established about 1,0000 Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) at various schools in the country to create a problem-solving mindset in children and to cultivate them as modern innovators. But, a large number of schools in Andhra Pradesh are lagging in making use of the opportunity to establish state-of-the-art laboratories and create workspaces for young minds.

Tinkering is an attempt to inculcate a 'Let's try something new' attitude among students, and motivate them to apply multiple new approaches to solve a single problem by involving with technology. As per the Atal Innovation Mission, any eligible government or private high school with a valid Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE) code can apply for setting up an Atal Tinkering Lab.

NITI Aayog grants aid of Rs 10 lakh for the establishment and another Rs 2 lakh for operational expenses every year for five years. Hundreds of the schools with ATLs failed to receive the instalments for the remaining years, as they didn't submit the utilisation certificates as per the required format and signatures from the officials. Though some schools submitted the certificates, the NITI Aayog didn't release the funds as it didn't satisfy them.

In Andhra Pradesh, more than 730 ATLs are established since 2016. They received Rs 12 lakh in the first year of establishment to purchase the tools, equipment, and computers required for the students, and for the operating expenses like honorarium to the master trainers, etc.,

T Jayasri, principal of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Ongole, said that they started the ATL in 2019 and received a total of Rs 12 lakh as funds from the NITI Aayog. She explained that they gave a break to the ATL during corona pandemic and restarted it in the last academic year. Mostly the students from Classes 8, 9 and 11 are working on their ideas in the lab, and the trainers are guiding them, she added.

The merger of primary classes into high schools in Andhra Pradesh also affected functioning of the ATLs negatively. Prakasam district science officer T Ramesh explained that most of the government schools with ATLs are forced to convert the labs into classrooms to accommodate the new classes. He said that the new classrooms are under construction as part of the Nadu-Nedu works, and the ATLs will be restarted once their construction is complete.

A teacher at a school with ATL in Krishna district observed that the students are not being given much freedom to ideate and innovate. He explained that the interests of the vendors are reflected in the trainers and the teachers, who are encouraging the students to take up mostly electronic projects. He said that with this trend, the students are unable to think out of the box and design some mechanical or agricultural tools that can be widely used in future.